Be My Eyes

It only took a couple minutes for my first call to come in. When you download the app they say to expect to wait possibly a couple weeks before receiving a call. When the notification came in I was pleasantly surprised! Upon answering the call I was invited into someone's life and home. We introduced ourselves and she asked about a couple wall fixtures and the AC unit. We laughed together about the heat and talked about how wonderful it is to be able to help someone so far away and to be connected with someone right away. By the end of our call not only had we shared in a wonderful exchange ending in smiles laughter and knowing where and what the different buttons were on the AC panel; but we also got to share part of our lives and our humanity together. Although I am currently unable to work as an EMT or do anything requiring mobility due to an injury to my foot, I am extremely grateful that I can still help through a medium such as Be My Eyes, and use something such as my sight to help someone in a wonderful way. I may be stuck in bed but there is always something that you can be doing for someone else to better their lives and empower them. From the moment I heard of the app Be My Eyes I was overjoyed that someone cared about a community that is so important to me to make something so helpful and beautiful, if you haven't used this app yet please do. 

From a young age the blind community has been close to my heart not only because some of the most amazing people I've met have been blind but also because I'm an advocate someone who works to empower others and get them what they need using the skills that I have, even if that skill be something such as my ability to see. My parents worked with students to empower them through the use of different tools to make everything more accessible in their education and lives, among these students was a woman that changed my life. When I met her she was working in my daycare center where I would spend a short period of time everyday after school, she was blind and she loved working with children. I was about six or seven and I remember thinking about how I could share something that I had made for her without her being able to see it. I quickly ran to the coloring bin, I found a tactile stencil with a raised pattern in the shape of a dress and I used it to draw her a portrait. I described my portrait of her and handed her the stencil. I asked if she could feel the pattern, she smiled and said yes she could and that it was "beautiful". I explained the scenery in feelings like wind or sound (I had just begun to play the cello and could remember the feeling of the cello against my body and the shapes and colors I could imagine those sounds being). I enjoyed spending time with her we talked about things like how she lived life and perceived the things around her how sound changed her life and I loved every second of trying to understand and enter her world. We would walk around and I would describe what I looked like and the things around us and she would describe them the way she saw them in her minds eye. I will forever be grateful for her and for our friendship, the laughs we shared and conversations we had. People are beautiful and every person I meet I try and understand them not just from a positional or social aspect but also from a mental and universal aspect, what is their life like and how can I best share with them what I would like to share and best understand what they are sharing with me. Spending time with this amazing woman has played such an important role in my life she allowed me to be curious and to enter her reality she welcomed my curiosity, passion, and compassion; she encouraged me and thanked me and she will forever be someone important in my life and journey. I highly recommend the outstanding app Be My Eyes. I hope you take the initiative to advocate for others with the skills and gifts you have been given everyday no matter how simple you may find them. I also hope you will take part in this amazing project/community that Be My Eyes has started!  

1 Peter 4:10(NIV) Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.