|
Inspirations For EverythingBlind
WELCOME TO Inspirations FOR EVERYTHINGBLIND
Your monthly newsletter from EverythingBlind.com
August 2010
Navigation Help For Inspirations For EverythingBlind
JAWS users can press "H" on their keyboard to navigate quickly through the sections of Inspirations.
You can find the names for each of these sections in the following table of contents
If you have any trouble reading Inspirations because of Format, email delivery type, or security reasons, please contact
info@everythingblind.com
Table of Contents
And now August's issue! Enjoy!
Here with Inspirations we would like to give something to everyone. We want it to be a work of the readers, so remember to keep an
open mind and jump in with your own submissions to Inspirations.
It is important to remember that in order to live a good and just life, we should try to treat others as we would like to be treated. The golden rule applies in all faiths, religions and walks of life.
although we do not have to believe what others say, we might try, at least, to listen and take into consideration that others' beliefs are valid to them. Who knows, we may even learn something of value to ourselves!
I ask that you keep an open mind, as many of the Inspirations featured here in our publication may not resonate with you right away nor ever. Please tune in each and every month and you may find someone to inspire you to greatness! The blind community contains all sorts of people, beliefs, and religions and we can all come together to inspire each other.
I as the editor of Inspirations will never present only one viewpoint or religious denomination. I only wish to remain neutral and present to you the stories of people who have inspired others.
Take some time and find an inspiration , today!
Then share who you’ve found with the rest of our readers.
Visit our Blind Inspirations page at: Blind Inspirations of EverythingBlind www.everythingblind.com/personal-growth.html
And go on your own personal journey to find your gifts and strengths. There are many inspirational people and teachers introduced and you should be able to find something that resonates with you.
What You Can Expect
Each month we will share with you stories, and information on the individuals that have set their sights on inspiring!
the people just like us, who have lost their physical sight, but, not their vision. that keep us going and growing as not only blind and visually impaired individuals,
but also as able and active individuals.
Please send information on these individuals that you know of, so we can share them here or tell us about yourself and why you are such an inspiration!
FEATURED INSPIRATIONS
Sometimes an inspirational person does not even realize that they are inspirational to others, and do not even want to know such a thing. They go about their lives doing the things that they enjoy, helping others the best way they know how and remaining in the shadow, refusing to accept that they really are amazing.
Such a person is a man we’ll call Jack Taylor. This is not his real name, and Jack would never agree to be featured in this month's “Inspirations” due to his lack of desire to be in the limelight, but he has been such an inspiration to me, I just had to share a little about him. Jack is totally blind and is very proactive in the group, Blinded Veterans Association.
I first heard about Jack when I was newly blind and attending an independent living class at the local Visually Impaired Persons center. An instructor there was telling us about how we could do anything we set our minds to, and mentioned that he knew a man who built furniture from scratch that was just incredibly beautiful. I was intrigued and wished that I could meet this man.
As it turned out I did get to meet him, after I had been assigned a JAWS tutor from my state's Division of Blind Services. One day the tutor and I were talking, and I mentioned this inspiring man that I wanted to meet and asked if she had ever heard of him. She laughed and said, “Yes, and I think I could manage to introduce you.”
Excited, I said, "Really? You know him?"
"Yes," she giggled, "I'm married to him."
I got to meet Jack, and as I got to know him I kept finding out more and more amazing things about him. The most amazing of all being the fact that Jack never considers that he is blind. I wonder sometimes if he, in fact, even knows it.
For example, he has built and restored many boats in his lifetime and has owned and operated too many to imagine. A mutual friend of ours had a boat motor that had seized up and there was Jack, getting it started again like the seasoned mechanic that he is. He has taught his kids to fish, swim, and even skip stones on the water.
Jack's wife has told me endless stories of the things he so fearlessly takes on, like climbing up a ladder following a hurricane to repair the leaking roof. Those in his neighborhood still don't believe he is actually blind. The one living right across the street was absolutely convinced he wasn't, when the lights accidentally got left on while Jack was working in his woodworking shop. "See, I told you he wasn't blind!" the neighbor told his wife.
I remember telling Jack a story about a blind friend who had accidentally cut his leg while cutting wood with a chainsaw. While visiting the emergency room, several medics commented that they thought it was stupid for a blind man to be using a chainsaw. He replied, “Well, my getting hurt was just an accident. Haven't you ever treated a sighted person for a chainsaw accident?”
All of them had to agree, yes, they had, many times.
Jack chuckled at the story and said to me "Oh, the only time I really have trouble with a chainsaw is when I have to climb a tree." Ho hum… um, er, Jack? Climb a tree?,
Yup, that's Jack’s attitude: “I can do anything, and chances are that I can learn it if I don't already know how.”
He's been such a great inspiration to me, but he refuses to admit he's anything special. I did finally realize that he was not a superhero, just a regular man like any other. Yet, he is very special in his way of never saying, “I can’t.”
Now, I don't recommend you all go out and climb onto the roof or climb a tree with a chainsaw. But don't ever sell yourself short on what you can actually do if you just try.
So, just wanted to say thanks to Jack, and to tell everyone, maybe you don’t think you’re special, but yes, just believe in yourself and you'll find that you too can do anything, if you set your mind to it.
Until next month, everyone, stay inspired!
Heidi Hockman
Permission to republish any Featured Inspiration story in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
This Month'sBELLY LAUGH
providing some humor to lighten your day!
As with all parts of our publication, we try and keep an open mind and acceptance of funny stuff. Sometimes humor can get people into trouble and inadvertantly cause offense. I ask that we all remember to take it as a joke and laugh a little!
Be sure to pass it along, as everyone is helped with a smile.
Bran Muffins
The couple was 95 years old, and had been married for sixty years. Though not young, they were both in very good health, largely due to the wife's insistence on healthy foods and exercise for the last 20 years.
One day, their good health didn't help when they went on a rare vacation and their plane crashed, sending them off to Heaven.
They reached the pearly gates, and St. Peter escorted them inside. He took them to a beautiful mansion, furnished in gold and fine silks, with a fully stocked kitchen and a waterfall in the master bath.
They gasped in astonishment when he said, "Welcome to Heaven. This will be your home now."
The old man asked Peter how much all this was going to cost. "Why, nothing," Peter replied, "remember, this is your reward in Heaven." The old man looked out the window and right there he saw a championship golf course, finer and more beautiful than any ever built on Earth. "What are the greens fees?" grumbled the old man. "This is heaven ," St. Peter replied. "You can play for free, every day."
Next they went to the clubhouse and saw the lavish buffet lunch, with every imaginable cuisine laid out before them, from seafood to steaks to exotic deserts, free flowing beverages.
"Don"t even ask," said St. Peter to the man, "this is Heaven, it is all free for you to enjoy."
The old man looked around and glanced nervously at his wife.
"Well, where are the low fat and low cholesterol foods, and the decaffeinated tea?," he asked..
"That"s the best part," St. Peter replied, "you can eat and drink as much as you like of whatever you like, and you will never get fat or sick. This is Heaven!"
The old man pushed, "No gym to work out at?"
"Not unless you want to," was the answer.
"No testing my sugar or blood pressure or..."
"Never again. All you do here is enjoy yourself."
The old man glared at his wife and said, "You and your " bran muffins. We could have been here ten years ago!"
INSPIRATIONS ARCHIVES
Archives of Inspirations For EverythingBlind can be viewed at: Inspirations For EverythingBlind Archives http://www.EverythingBlind.com/Inspirations_For_EverythingBlind_Archives.html
FROM THE EDITOR
Hello everyone!,
Remember that Inspirations is a work of the readers! you are urged to send your suggestions and feedback.
We wish many more of you to send in your contributions so EverythingBlind and Inspirations can be a real place to Connect with what you want and need.
Take time now, to send your links of the sites you most visit so they can be added to EverythingBlind.com and Inspirations.
Heidi@everythingblind.com
Thanks so much for all of your warm wishes and your blessings and continued support.
Stay Inspired!,
Heidi Hockman
Chief Editor
EVERYTHING NEW AT EVERYTHINGBLIND
Following is information and the new links that have been added to www.EverythingBlind.com
* 10+ Special Browsers For Visually Impaired Users
10+ Special Browsers For Visually Impaired Users
Check it out at: Inspirations For EverythingBlind new links http://www.EverythingBlind.com/resources.html
and find the heading for Accessibility Resources
*Travel Pals
Travel pals is a service designed for visually impaired persons desiring to travel with sighted travel companions.
Anyone who loves to travel can avail themselves of this service.
A sighted match doesn't have to be anyone with specific kinds of qualifications. Just be a person who everybody enjoys being around. You will need a few good guiding techniques and be able to describe people,places, surroundings and things.
We travel year round, anywhere and everywhere.
We take buses, trains, plains, and jump on cruise ships. We travel with any good tour company or group.
I'm asking for your ideas. Let us hear from you soon.
Contact information:
Carol Sexton, founder and director of Travel Pals: your representative on the east coast.
422 Lancaster Pike
Malvern, Pa 19355
Home phone 610-647-0757
cell phone 484-680-2440
email at : sunshinepa@verizon.net
Arlene Marston: your representative on the west coast.
245-22 West Bobier Dr
Vista, Ca 92083
Home phone 760-631-4415
cell phone 760-845-9666
Check it out at: Inspirations For EverythingBlind new links http://everythingblind.com/blog.html
and find the heading for Travel
EverythingBlind.com
EverythingBlind.com www.EverythingBlind.com
ANNOUNCEMENTS
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES
Please visit: http://thinkexist.com/quotations/passion/
Where we found these Inspirational quotes:
"Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion."
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
"A great leader's courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position."
John Maxwell
"Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music."
Angela Monet
Please visit: http://thinkexist.com/quotations/passion/2.html
Where we found these Inspirational quotes:
"If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find
great things happen FOR you, TO you and BECAUSE of you."
T. Alan Armstrong
"We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it."
Ernesto 'Che' Guevara
"A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means."
William Hazlitt
" There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the passion of life."
Federico Fellini
" When work, commitment, and pleasure all become one and you reach that deep well where passion lives, nothing is impossible."
Nancy Coey
How You Can Help
Please forward this to all of your friends and colleagues.
We are bringing the blind community closer together.
Heidi
Experience Personal Growth
One of our goals is to take each of you who are willing and ready to grab a hold of a dream and help you to run with it.
OK, so you may be blind, but who cares. Find what it is that makes you passionate and live it.
Please, visit our Blind Inspirations page at www.everythingblind.com/personal-growth.html
to find some ways to help you do this
Looking For ...
In this section we will post your requests, for free, of something you need that you have not been able to easily find.
This may range from a product or service that you require, or a resource or just to make new friends to correspond with.
Send your submissions to this category,
with looking for ... in the subject line.
Looking for affordable women's manual wind Braille watch. Modern quartz battery powered watches do not work for me though talking watches do. But the mechanical wind or automatic self-winding have worked for me for years, from childhood to, um, middle age.
If anyone knows where I can find one at a price below $100, please send the information to this publication. Thank you.
Visit a website for the blind!
We have put together a site where all VIPs their friends, family, and anyone else that wants to find something pertaining to vision or
vision loss, can come to interact and learn.
Check it out!
EverythingBlind.com www.EverythingBlind.com
How Can I Get Inspirations?
To get your free subscription to Inspirations For EverythingBlind, send a blank email to:
subscribe@everythingblind.com
Return to Archive Page by clicking this link: Inspirations For EverythingBlind Archives
Return to home page by clicking this link: Everything
blind
|