When I was growing up, the absence of today's technology made it necessary for me to be more dependent on other people for many things. That gave me an insight into dependence that I never expected to discover. In short, many of my friends and acquaintances had similar problems, and they were not blind.

Enjoy.

Find out more at https://stories-that-change-our-lives.pinecast.co

When I enrolled in college, I was studying to be a minister. This is the story of that journey and how a very special gift of love gave me the freedom to think more open-mindedly about the very narrow path I was on. That gift also allowed me to respect the varied paths taken by others that caused them, and eventually me, to understand and accept the fact that we may not all end up in the same place, and yet...

Find out more at https://stories-that-change-our-lives.pinecast.co

Here are some stories about my early college experience as the only blind student on campus. This was quite a jump from my life at the school for the blind. Given my fear of what I might find at a very good undergraduate college, was this a jump from the frying pan into the fire?

It's also a story of an everlasting friendship with the very first student I met when I arrived, as well as a story of a teacher who changed my college experience and my life forever.

Find out more at https://stories-that-change-our-lives.pinecast.co

My parents knew that no school in our area could teach a child who was blind. They also knew they couldn't educate me themselves. So, they had to do the unthinkable. They had to send me away to school before I turned 5 years old.

For me, spending my first 4 years as an only child, and then suddenly being placed in a dorm with about 80 other students of all ages, was not a life I was expecting. Back then, I didn't know what coping skills were. I had a lot to learn. Fortunately, my parents had taught me how to do exactly that. The question was, could I do it?

The school didn't give me a great academic education. There were people there, however, who taught me much about who I was on the inside.

This episode touches on some of the failures and triumphs I experienced along the way.

Find out more at https://stories-that-change-our-lives.pinecast.co

As a very young child, you can only know your own condition. If you can't see, you don't quickly grasp the fact that others have something you don't have. It's even harder if you have light perception, because then people tell you that you can see. But, can you? This is the complicated story about how my parents who knew nothing about blindness, and I, who knew nothing about sight struggled to finally understand and deal with the situation.

Find out more at https://stories-that-change-our-lives.pinecast.co

In this story, my grandfather and I walk through my grandparents' apple orchard. In part, this is a sound painting of events that took place in the orchard each time I was there. People say that a picture is worth a thousand words. How many words does it take to describe a special sound, a special time, and the partly unwanted life-changing wisdom I learned among the apples? I kept being drawn back to that place. It wasn't just to hear the sounds. It was also to search for what I remembered and longed to change. I dedicate this episode to my grandfather: a man who was wise even beyond his many years. I wish you had known him. Perhaps when you finish this story, you will have some idea of the man who was my grandfather and also my friend.

Find out more at https://stories-that-change-our-lives.pinecast.co

It all started with ear-hand coordination and Daddy's faith that I could do what some thought impossible. No, it's not the normal way one acquires a recorder. Even so, that was the day my knowledge and enjoyment of sound changed forever, and I changed right along with it. Just another story that goes way beyond the telling.

Find out more at https://stories-that-change-our-lives.pinecast.co

It started with a simple childhood game of ball I played with my grandparents. My Mom and Dad kept improving the game. Slowly, it became less a game, and more a way of life.

From this game and other fun times with my parents, I discovered I could use my non-visual senses to create a mental image of my surroundings. In a way, it was a transition from blindness to Sight. I learned to use this image to understand where I was in any given space without ever using my eyes to see the objects and people that might be in the same space. It may be as close to normal vision as I will ever have, but it has allowed me to See, in my own way, and to be totally unafraid of the dark.

Find out more at https://stories-that-change-our-lives.pinecast.co

For a year or so, around age 12, I had often played by an old abandoned well. I would throw stones or other things into it to see if I could hear them hit the bottom. I could hear the echo from the well if I spoke into it. I could smell a strange but rather pleasing odor coming from it. I kept being drawn back to it to learn more. I just couldn't stay away.

There is a lot more I could say, but who wants to give away all their secrets. Just come along with me, and you will discover them just as I did.

Find out more at https://stories-that-change-our-lives.pinecast.co

Daddy and I were walking from the creek to the river to fish. Strange how a short walk can have such a life-long impact on people’s lives. When we got to the river, fishing was the furthest thing from our minds. It was the silence of the land and the quiet relationship between father and son that was very much needed that day.

Find out more at https://stories-that-change-our-lives.pinecast.co