30 Days of Gratitude - Day Eight

A Part of Your Body

I have had corrected vision for the majority of my life.  I remember as a child I resented my eyes, hating the fact that I was called a "four-eyed freak" for wearing glasses, and waiting for the day I could get contact lenses.  I didn't truly appreciate the fact that I had my vision, all I could focus on was having to rely on the glasses to see everything the way people with 20/20 vision would.

Point Iroquois Light on Lake Superior

I'm older and wiser now, and I've gotten past the fact that I need to wear glasses or contacts.  Heck, some people wear fake glasses as an accessory now, so I guess I was ahead of the curve style-wise.  I've been some pretty cool places, like Tahquanemon Falls, the Grand Canyon, the various lighthouses of the Great Lakes, and the Saguaro Desert.  I can't imagine not being able to take in all that beauty that surrounded me.   Vivid colors, the landscape, the wildlife, all things that I delight in so much.  Life would be so dull not to be able travel and have the ability to take photographs of what I've seen.  Just seeing those pictures bring me back to when I first visited those places and enjoy those memories all over again.

Without my eyes I wouldn't be able to appreciate even the daily things that I take for granted.  I wouldn't be able to see the plants I've grown flower, see my cats play with their toy mice, or even my husband smile and shake his head when I make an off-color joke.  I've even come to love the person I've grown in to. Instead of loathing the girl with the glasses looking back at me in the mirror, I see her freckles, dimples, and even slight wrinkles, and I am grateful to be her and to have traveled this life's journey.