Stories that Change our Lives

How can one small 13-year-old be full of so much wisdom, compassion, curiosity, radiance, and love? Her name was Jeanine. Her time on this earth was so very short, but she left it, and all who knew her, in a better place because she lived among us. Because of our friendship, I am still, and always will be, a child at heart. I miss her still. Find out more at https://stories-that-change-our-lives.p...

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 plac...

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...

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. Bac...

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 fin...

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 bac...

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...

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...

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.

Episode Notes How does a 6 year old blind child safely walk almost any place he wishes before he learns to use a cane? How would you do it if you were somehow prevented from seeing the ground in front of you? How would you know what your foot would land on next? What if it's a flight of steps? It might be a rock that moves under your foot. You could be stepping into a pool of slippery mud. How wou...

If you have ever tried to explain what something you can see might look like in the mind of a person who was born without sight, you have likely happened on an experience that taxes your knowledge of whatever language you speak. Visual objects can be much more easily described. Other people who see may recognize that you are describing an alligator or perhaps a squirrel long before you finish, eve...

Episode Notes At the age of six, my father taught me to cross the road that went in front of our house. Little did I know then that there were so many roads, so much traffic, so many city block angles, and other things that would tax my hearing, power of discovery, and my wits. It is many years later. I am still crossing roads, both literally and figuratively. I have learned two things. Not all ro...

This episode describes the way a very young Neal discovered echo location and how his Dad helped him perfect it. For someone who is blind, listening to echos can give one vital information about where one is in space, what is in their space, and where it is located. It might be the closest thing to actual sight that Neal and other people who are blind can use to help them successfully understand a...