Lost My Path

Yesterday I had to go to my primary care doctor.

His office is about a quarter of a mile from my front door. The short walk is mostly along an old railroad bed over open fields.

Last month when I walked that very same path, it was clearly visible to me. Part of the walk went through old stalks of standing sunflowers from last summer and then rough grass and tumbleweed lay alongside a clear path of gravel and sand.

Yesterday I got to the edge of the field and all was the same pale grey.

I could not see any contrast between the path and the field whatsoever. Every sunflower stalk and tumbleweed had gone.

It was if a giant mower had cleared and trimmed the field down to the bare earth.

In stead of taking me ten minute to cross the field it took nearer twenty minutes. I lost the path several times and wandered about alarmingly. Eventually I made it to the other side but I was exhausted by the sheer hard work of trying to find the route.

Coming back was equally as tough.

It is surprising even in a seemingly chaotic and wild space such as that field probably appeared to a sighted person. There were clues which I as a blind man could use. The now neat and tidy field for the sighted person became a place of nightmare and confusion for me.