Unexpected Gifts

Just sixteen years old I ran out in the snow without a coat on to help push a stuck car out of a snowbank. As I started to push the rear of the car the driver floored it as hard as they could to get out of there. Hearing the spinning of the tires I turned my head to avoid anything hitting my face. Just as I started to get out of the way a rock flew up and hit my right eye. I dropped to my knees both hands covering the eye that I thought no longer existed.

I had to go inside my boyfriend’s house and look in the mirror to make sure my eye was still there. As I looked, I could see my right eye, but my vision in that eye was now a black hole. I realized that I had no insurance and no money to go to the doctor. So for the rest of the day and night every time my heart beat my eye pulsed – like the rock had just hit my eye. In agony all I could do is lay down and hold my face together.

By the third day, somehow, I found out I had emergency insurance. While at the ophthalmologist he said that I should have come in immediately for he wasn’t sure about the outcome of my sight. I was given medicinal drops that I applied on a schedule to help numb and give my eye a chance to heal. I had to wear a patch over my eye so that I would not touch it, especially at night. I wasn’t supposed to lift anything over 5 pounds. I did bring a package up the driveway, and I didn’t think it was that heavy, but I could feel the strain on my eye.

Good news – my eye is not a blackhole anymore. Years later my right eye which I almost lost is now stronger than my left eye! Sometimes my right eye looks strained or red, but I am so thankful that I have both my eyes.

Love has made me the person I am today, but pain has shaped my world for the better. Sometimes when I am down, or I think that the world might be crashing down around me I think about how fortunate I am. My pains have been temporary.  Yes, many things have hurt.  But the old saying is true: 

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger

Not only stronger, pain can change your perspective and enrich your world with  newfound appreciation.

I appreciate pain for I would not know what it is to be truly joyful without it. Not that I want to go through extreme pain…  I can’t deny the profound impact each extreme event has given to me.  I am blessed in many ways even if it does not feel like a blessing while I’m going through it.