I know I said I would only blog when I had something to say, but it has been too long and I am going to post something. We are extremely busy in the shop with multiple jobs, both residential and commercial. We are finishing off a custom kitchen and look forward to productive days to come. Pierce is an amazing help both I’m the shop and on installs. I can’t say enough about how great it is to now have two children able to drive me around. Losing your vision forces you in many ways to rely on others and having a family and friends like I do is quite a blessing. Today Beth and I were in the shop spraying paint and we work very well together. She is excellent at being my eyes and giving me the information I need to get things done. I suppose this update has become a thank you to everyone who is in my life and helps me to continue on. I am so glad that I am able to continue to do so many of the things I love to do from building cabinetry to kayaking and fishing. My vision is slowly changing for the worse and I want to live each day to its fullest.
A bit of history….
It was the summer of 2008 and the wind felt great in my face as I rode my brand new Harley on the back roads of Kentucky. I was very satisfied with my life. My business was doing well, everyone in my family was healthy, and the future looked very promising. In a nutshell I knew I was a blessed man. We were in the middle of building cabinets for my chiropractors 6,000 sq. ft. house in a nearby town. I was really enjoying building custom pieces for just about every room in the house and we were getting towards the end of the project. Countertops were now in process in the shop and with my low back giving me a liitle pain, I decided it was a good day for a motorcyle ride and an adjustment. About two miles down the road, a truck pulled in front of me and sent me flying sans helmet 30 feet after hitting a mail box with my leg. I miraculously walked away (hobbled away) from this experience and little did I know that totalling a brand new Harley would not be the most drastic thing to happen to me in the next few months.
In the months after the motorcycle accident, life seemed to get back to normal. The economy was starting to affect my business but we were able to keep projects in the shop. It was around this time that I noticed my eyesight was not what it had been in past years. I was having trouble reading and even driving. I told myself that, at 39, this was supposed to happen and I even welcomed the thought of wearing glasses that might make me look more sophisticated and intelligent. It was March of 2009, one week after my fortieth birthday, that I made my way to the eye doctor thinking I was going to get glasses and go back to normal life. After going through all the tests and hearing small comments from the doctor that made me nervous, he informed me that I was legally blind, glasses would not help me, there was no treatment, it was only going to get worse, and that I should seek another profession. I left in shock and unsure of my future. The explanation from the doctor was that I have a rare condition called rod-cone degeneration which causes me to have very bad night vision and now blurry vision. I really can’t see faces any more, I don’t know what my kids look like now, reading printed text is out of the question, and the sun has become my enemy.
The following weeks were spent on a roller coaster of fear and uncertainty and peace that God would not leave me alone and in the dark. The love and graciousness of friends and family allowed for a time to adjust to the idea of being legally blind and think about what life would look like with this new reality. After a second doctors opinion, which concurred with the first in all regards except finding a new profession, I was encouraged to continue to do what I loved until I couldn’t possibly do it any more. I returned to the shop convinced that although I could not do every aspect of my profession, I could do many tasks that I love to do. It was about this time I contacted the Kentucky Office for the Blind and was provided with some tools that changed my life. I now am able to read my mail and any other printed material using a CCTV. I am able to measure again in the shop using a talking tape measure. Special software allows me to do everything on the computer that I used to do plus a cabinet design program allows me to design and print realistic pictures of potential projects for customers. All in all, I found that I can still do most things in the shop. I have to rely on others now to do my finish work, driving and other tasks that require good vision, but designing, building and overall running the company is still within my abilities. It might take me a bit longer and some help, but the end product ends up being very beautiful.
Life is about adapting
I never have had an excuse to say things like “It is too hard” or “I am just gonna give up”. I grew up with parents who had polio when they were young. This left them with some pretty big disadvantages in life, but they did not allow those disadvantages to stop them from doing pretty much anything that they wanted to do. My father just retired from teaching at the college level. He types with his mouth and drives with his feet. My mother walks with crutches, is blind and does pretty much everything a house wife needs to do. She retired a few years ago from a secretarial position that she held for many years. Up until now, I have only had little bumps in the road to cause me to rethink my life and how to handle obstacles. Becoming legally blind, about two years ago, was by far the biggest bump I have hit as of yet, but the lessons learned from my parents are the same. If I had to say it in one sentence I think it would be: Adapt to your problems and rely on God for your needs. Adaptation has meant reading with special equipment, using specialized computer programs, using a talking tape measure, learning to do tasks in the shop more by feel, learning to rely on others when I can’t see the details, and more. God provides me the hope and strength to keep on doing the things I need to do. He really doesn’t give us anything that we can’t handle with His help. I am learning what all of that means more and more each day. Truthfully, the only other option I can see is to allow our circumstances to control us and give up. The statements may seem cliché, but they are true nonetheless. Life is short. Live each day to the fullest. Everyone has something in life that they need to adapt to at some point. The choice is ours. Keep pressing forward or sit down and give up. Don’t give up.
The first entry
Hello and welcome to my first step in the world of blogging. I have wanted to do this for some time now and today is the day to get started. My plan is to share things from both my personal life and happenings in my cabinet making business. It is my desire that this would be a place where people who know me can go to get a glimpse into what is going on with me while hopefully being encouraged that if God can do amazing things in my life then He certainly can do it in their own. I especially desire to encourage anyone who is dealing with some kind of difficulty in life, whether it be blindness related (my personal difficulty) or not. I will endeavoour to only post when I have something worth posting. I don’t think you want to know what I had for dinner or how long it took for me to brush my teeth. Again, welcome and I sincerely hope that my journey both is enjoyable reading and encouraging.
