Losing Sight

I can’t stop thinking about losing sight. This week, my mom was diagnosed with macular degeneration. She loves to read. She never has attached to technology so I think of ways to share her love of reading with the loss over time of her sight. Maybe she’ll like audio books but I really don’t know. If you have advice, throw it my way. I’m open to all ideas.

And as usual when my mind wanders, it comes to our work. And I think how easy it is to “lose sight” of or not know or forget or disagree about what the point of our work is. I’ve gotten very refined about my work this year and it’s only mid-February. I know it’s to not contribute to further wreckage in people’s lives. Today I heard a sermon that for me that was about my work. It was naming that sometimes when we help people we use a language of the courts or criminal justice, sometimes we use a language of medicine and sometimes people of faith use a religious language for the wreckage in people’s lives.

For me, I’d like less to talk about what the wreckage is and more about what is our job as community. What do we need to do to be of service? To actually help? And what language do we use to help. Does it matter? It might because not naming the help might create more wreckage.

I remember years ago participating in a women’s group. We were doing a storytelling exercise about our own lives and one of participants shared that her father was blind. She shared stories of growing up with someone who couldn’t see. All I got from her story and what I still remember today was wow the vision he gave her led her to a life of such purpose. Still today, she does important work in Southern Oregon to really help people.

So this is my own ask for you to help me not lose sight of our work. With me? Sure hope so because we need you.

Here’s to vision, with or without sight.

Onward,