Sight

I really enjoy seeing.  I love it so much that I am compelled to take pictures of nearly everything I see so that I can remember it when I get home and sometimes share it with the whole world.  But lately, my eyesight hasn't been great.  I noticed last Sunday when I was playing the organ that the lines on the music had mysteriously disappeared.  I attributed my many, many mistakes during Sacrament meeting partially to lack of practice and partially to being overly emotional because it was our first Sunday at church without Savannah.  But the real reason was because I couldn't tell the difference between the space notes and the line notes.  And that makes it difficult to play the right ones.  Those little lines are immensely important!

I have been asked to play the piano this Sunday for a missionary farewell.  It's not a difficult song.  It's only two pages.  But every time I've run through it, I make a million mistakes.  And since I don't love to make mistakes, and I don't love things that are difficult, I have procrastinated learning that music.  Which leads to dread and guilt and this giant thing looming over my head.  

I have to KNOW this by tomorrow morning at 11:30 in order to be able to practice it with the violinist.  

So today, I decided to try it again..this time in prime seeing conditions...in the middle of the afternoon, with all the blinds open in the piano room, and a spotlight on the music.  Still...no lines.  And more frustration.  Within minutes, I considered calling another pianist to fill in for me.  I planned my resignation from my self-appointed substitute organist calling.  And I prepared for a dismal future of darkness as my sight dwindled from "not great" to "legally blind" over the next few years. 

And then...I had an idea.  

I own a pair of glasses, you know.  They have lived in my bathroom drawer for almost three years because I don't like them, they don't really work, and glasses in general just give my a huge headache.  

But, you know, desperate times...and all that...

In complete desperation, I dusted off those glasses and made one final attempt at playing through that music.  

And miracle of miracles...they worked!  Things were magnified.  All those invisible staff lines reappeared.  And I played right through that whole song without any difficulty.  Oh, how much easier would my life be if I would just use the tools that are right here within reach?

I've been wearing these things around the house all night and it turns out they work on just about everything.  The font on my iPhone is larger.  My IG pictures aren't at all blurry like I thought they were.  I can read books...the printed kind with words on pages...and I don't have to wait for the sun to be up.  I can see the cooking instructions on the box of mac and cheese...yes, that's what we had for dinner tonight.  

It looks like that one little idea may have just improved my life a whole lot!