Coming out of the darkness

Coming out of the darkness

Blindness makes you draw on inner resources and get in touch with the world around you in a different way. Sound is all important. Music can be a wonderful comforter, enabling one to get on a higher spiritual plane. My first introduction to classical music was a recording of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony No. 6. What an introduction that proved to be, especially as Beethoven was critically deaf when he created the Pastoral Symphony. Yet it is colour in sound, in the most incredible way. Listening to the ‘By the Brook’ movement, one can imagine walking by the water. The depiction of the storm really gives you a feeling of the weather closing in and dark clouds overhead. That could be said of my life at this point. Dark clouds overhead; so many changes, so many new experiences to come to terms with. Learning Braille was no easy task, especially when the first Braille book that I was trying to read had dots that had almost gone to powder, because it was so old. The frustration was incredible, yet getting in touch with the world around one was also exhilarating. Mastering Braille was the first major challenge. Learning to cope with one’s food and not being afraid to move were yet more challenges...