As a person with a visual impairment I have determined that there are many things that go unnoticed. Things that happen right under my nose yet go without visual cognition. Things that are right there for me to notice if my eyes could focus. Until my hands brush across the top of the dresser do I notice that the small layer of dust that has settled like flour on a bread board now covers this surface? I do not see the dust so in my mind it is erased from concern. I should take more care with small things like dust on the furniture. I cannot see it so it goes unnoticed.

What people do on their computers and phones goes unnoticed as I cannot see the screens to see where and when people are traveling to via the web. Until my ears pick up some sounds or some audible note that reminds me that others have gone on without me into a virtual world that eludes my total emersion like they are capable of. It goes unnoticed.

The cat yak that perches on the step top goes unnoticed until my slippered foot tries to glide down the stairs and find the rough texture in place of the smooth surface. Until I come across that mess, it will go unnoticed.

The drain in the sink is clogged with food remnants that have gone unnoticed by me until the sink water backs up as it cannot get past the food bits. I find the stuff and clean it out but it went unnoticed until the water filled the sink instead of running down the drain to freedom.

The things outside my door that have the possibility of danger go unnoticed. What I cannot see cannot hurt me. The coyotes, the snakes, bees and all wildlife that will stay further than arm’s length as I cannot see them and they must go unnoticed.

The neighbor’s house that sits kiddy corner to ours sits unnoticed as the occupants come and go with regularity but the motion is beyond comprehension as their lives and mine are so far apart I go unnoticed.

The dark mocking as time flies by is not unchallenged or unnoticed. A calendar flips one more date forward. With each leap the day turns into weeks then months then ultimately years. Zoom. The time goes on but not unnoticed. It is with glaring clarity that I am aware that time ticks so loud goading and prodding me with the hands of a clock chiding me that I am wasting   a great resource. Unnoticed are the sounds as I grasp hard at the time slipping through my hands in a desperate measure to reclaim the ground lost to my circumstances.

Some of the things that have gone unnoticed are minor and if I just planned a little better I could make the dusting a priority and the kitchen strainer cleaned regularly. Some of the other things will always elude me and will be a grief to bear until I come to terms with the limitation and accept the rigors of that constraint.

I am here. I do not want to be unnoticed. I matter.

Blessings, Denise

From the writer of seeingdifferences.com

http://seeingdifferences.com/