..We rush about, doing what we do. We have a routine, a plan. We arrange our lives in some order, and we have our goals straight ahead of us. But sometimes life catches us off-guard. We halt in our tracks. And we find ourselves in a situation where we are touched. A stranger enters our life, a fleeting golden moment - and suddenly, we find ourselves in a magical Amelie-like world.
Today, as I burst out the subway station to rush to the theater, someone calls out behind me: "Wait!" Surprised, and maybe a little bit annoyed, I turn around. An excuse is already hanging on my lips. The words stop in the middle of my throat as I stare in pure astonishment at the appearance before me. A slender woman with long sand-blond hair, fair skin is standing there. She is most likely the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. She smiles at me shyly- but, somehow she seems to be somewhere else. I can't really put my finger on it, why. She is not really looking at me. "Do you know where Schildergasse is?" she asks. I hastily wave my arm to show her, when it suddenly hits me:
She is blind.
A smile curls on the corners of her lips, a slender, small hand stretches out and lightly touches my arm. As I lead her to Cologne's busiest street, I attempt to describe what I see and I realize just how hard that is. The entire time I am thinking: How does she see her world? How does she feel the beauty? What is beauty to her? The cold winter air? The chatter of voices? The vibrations of many feet touching the ground? Wow. What an ecstatic moment.
Thanks for unforseen circumstances.
Eye am.
© Colleen Yorke. All rights reserved. 2015