ICE Syndrome - Reflections on a Quote

Another one of those "Quotes of the Day" arrived in my inbox a few weeks ago  - and when I read it, I immediately thought of ICE.   So here it goes .....

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising
every time we fall." - Confucius

The reality of ICE is that our eye health and vision will fall at some point   Our eye pressures will go up , our corneas will cloud.    And when that happens, we hope and pray that our doctors have the right medicines, the right surgical techniques, to restore our eye health and vision to the best possible outcome.    Sometimes those medicines & surgeries work, and sometimes they fail.   Sometimes they tease us and work for awhile- and then they fail shortly thereafter.     Some of us ICErs find ourselves experiencing failure after failure - and hopefully some of us will experience success for a lifetime.    

What about our attitude and how we handle these ups and downs?   I've said it many times before - it is up to us to CHOOSE our response to our situation, up to us to CHOOSE our attitude to ICE.   Oh, I'm human - I struggle at times - some of you know that.   On those days when I'm constantly bumping into things - or I think too many people are looking staring gawking at that very sick eye of mine, a part of me - my attitude - falls.    It's human nature.   And so I fall but I do get back up.   Choosing to know that we will get through this, choosing to be grateful for what we DO have, choosing to know that something positive will come from this - this is the rising up that makes us all stronger.   And honestly, just knowing that I'm not alone in this journey has helped me.  I appreciate all of you! 

I head to my cornea specialist on Tuesday.  More updates later!    

Live THIS day! 

ICE Syndrome Journeys - Vision Encounters & Life Lessons from Spring Break

On our spring break trip, we visited this state...

 

 And we visited this fella ....   (Isn't he adorable??)

We had a great time visiting friends and experiencing life with them.    From watching baseball games to celebrating a milestone birthday & everything in-between, we were on the go all the time.    The weather was delightful and an antidote to the 2 feet of snow we had before the trip and the 8" of snow we had one week after we got back.   I'm pretty sure the snow is now over for the season ...but didn't I say that 3 weeks ago?   

On the first and last days of our trip, I had two vision related encounters.   I've thought about those two encounters - wondering what I could learn from them.  

On our first night, we went to a very busy Tex-Mex restaurant (I do love me some chips & salsa, most definitely my biggest food weakness!)     My son and I went to make a purchase at the front of the restaurant.  The hostess was young, friendly & pleasant - and I caught a glimpse of her eye.   It was an oh-so-familiar sight....a patch graft on the lower outer quadrant of her eye.    I wanted to so give her a hug, encourage her and let her know I knew what she had gone through.   But the restaurant was noisy and busy - she was scurrying about, taking care of her customers.  She was LIVING the LIFE she was set out to do - and her eye, or the way it looked, was not going to stop her!    

On our last day, we were shopping at an indoor mall and we needed to get to the lower level.   Although we searched for an escalator, an elevator was nearby.   As we waited, almost out of nowhere appeared a lady probably in her 60s or 70s - pushing a stroller that I assumed held her grandchild.    We exchanged pleasantries, talking of elevators vs. escalators and strollers.    She mentioned she was visually impaired - blind - and taking a stroller on an escalator was a little bit much for her.   She spoke of living in the Midwest before she moved south and how her vision instructor taught her how to ride the escalator with her disability.    I remember thinking how she didn't look vision impaired and her attitude was absolutely fantastic.   I wanted to give her a hug,  encourage her and let her know I admired her,  but the door opened and she scurried away to meet up with her party.    Despite her vision disability, she was LIVING LIFE.   Her lack of sight of was not going to stop her!  

So the lesson I have taken away from these encounters???    

Regardless of where we are in our years of age, or how our eye looks, or our stage of ICE, or any impairment we might have....we LIVE our life.   We don't freeze, we don't despair.    We may have to adjust things a bit at times - a change in vocation, a change in location, a new way of doing things - but we continue to LIVE.   We embrace what we are given and keep on moving.   This is a life lesson. 

While I have been practicing to LIVE....THIS day, THIS moment - I always welcome the reminders - and these spring break encounters do just that.    

Live THIS day my friends!