My friend Michelle is blind, but you'd neverknow it. She makes such good use of her other senses, including her "sixthsense", that she rarely gives the impression that she's1 anything. Michelle looks after her childrenpretty much like the rest of us2thatshe doesn't add too much pressure on them. She knows when to clean the house,and she moves around3fastthat the strangers often don't realize she's blind.
I realized this the first time after mysix-year-old daughter, Kayla, went to play there. When Kayla came home, she wasvery4abouther day. She told me they had baked cookies, played games and did art projects.But she was especially excited about5finger-paintingproject.
"Mom, guess what?" said Kayla, allsmiles. "I learned how to6colorstoday! For example, blue and red make purple, and yellow and blue make green!And Michelle worked with us. "To my great7, mychild had learned about color from a blind friend! Then Kayla continued, "Michelletold me my8showedjoy, pride and a sense of success. She really9whatI was doing!" Kayla said she had never known how interesting the finger-paints are10Michelleshowed her how to paint without looking at her paper.
I realized Kayla didn't know that Michelle wasblind. It had just never11inconversation. When I told my daughter that Michelle was blind, she was quietfor a moment. At first, she didn't believe me. "But Mommy, Michelle knewexactly12wasin my picture!" Kayla insisted. And I knew my child was13becauseMichelle had listened to Kayla describe her art work. Michelle had also heardKayla's14inher work excitedly.
We were silent for a minute. Then Kayla saidslowly, "You know, Mommy, Michelle really did 'see' my picture. She justused my15."Indeed, she uses a special type of "vision" that all mothers have.