{"id":13105,"date":"2020-09-07T05:24:59","date_gmt":"2020-09-07T10:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=13105"},"modified":"2020-09-08T04:37:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T09:37:28","slug":"13105-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=13105","title":{"rendered":"Humbled by the Simplicity of Bentley"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is 11-year-old Bentley, the precious Havanese of my Austin family. He looks so contented and bright-eyed. He\u2019s contented, but not so bright-eyed. He lost his sight, so he makes his way around the house to his familiar places of comfort, finds his food and the people he loves. He knows me. Along with his people-brothers, he knows I\u2019m a sucker for giving him a piece of meat from my plate. He\u2019s contented with just being. He saunters around the house, occasionally bumping into a wall, but finds himself around just fine. He has developed a mental layout of his domain and he navigates it well. He\u2019s not in pain. I do pray for his sight to be restored, but he\u2019s not complaining at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bentley hears well. He knows it when someone enters a room. He smells well. He knows when I sit down at the table to eat my eggs and toast, makes his way to me, tilts his head back and those black eyes, though without sight, stare up at me and licks his chops. I can\u2019t resist him. I leave half my egg on my plate for him. I know he loves eggs, because he\u2019s the one that found the eggs I had just gathered from the hens, sat them down while I watered the garden and found nothing left in the container. Bentley and I both have good memories. I\u2019m so thankful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Though most of us could barely imagine what losing one of our senses would feel like, I understand that if one is missing, it can heighten the ability of the other four. For example, the amazing tenor, Andrea Bocelli, has sold over 90 million albums. Bocelli said his parents made him determined to never give up: \u201cThis is what my parents showed during my mother\u2019s pregnancy when the doctors advised her to have an abortion because the baby would be born with severe illnesses. She ignored their advice and carried on with my father\u2019s support. Without their courage and faith I would not be here today to tell the story.\u201d He was born with congenital glaucoma and he eventually went completely blind at age 12. Bocelli says he\u2019ll always be grateful for his parents\u2019 intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For most of us, we can barely even imagine what something like blindness would feel like. We have grown accustomed to our world\u2019s sights, sounds, tastes, smells and touches. But, if one of those senses are missing, particularly that of sight and sound, if lost, the brain \u201creroutes\u201d the normal sensory pathways and the unaffected senses take up the responsibilities of the affected sense, so to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve seen it in Bentley. For example, touch is more important to him \u2013 he cuddles into us; his ears hear better, his food is tastier than ever. I\u2019m thinking that I should close my eyes so that I appreciate what I\u2019m eating more. Maybe my sense of taste and smell may light up in ways I\u2019ve never experienced. I can\u2019t imagine all that blind people must have to conquer \u2013 getting dressed, cooking, finding their way through obstacles in their homes. Bentley has given me a new appreciation for the gift of sight. It\u2019s made me realize how much we can take for granted in a single day. My early morning walks without seeing the beauty of a sunrise or the trees, distant hills and checking out the colors of people\u2019s eyes. Bentley has humbled me by the simplicity of watching this little 4-legged creature find his way around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do we, all ‘seeing’ people, fully grasp how blessed we are? Maybe we should close our eyes more and experience what those who have no sight experience. Bentley shed new light for me on his competency and abilities, but even more for me to realize the competency and abilities of blind people. I\u2019ve heard it said ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’ And just maybe the beholder without eyes sees way more than those of us who do. It is amazing what the seeing and the unseeing can learn from one another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is 11-year-old Bentley, the precious Havanese of my Austin family. He looks so contented and bright-eyed. He\u2019s contented, but not so bright-eyed. He lost his sight, so he makes his way around the house to his familiar places of comfort, finds his food and the people he loves. He knows me. Along with his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16928,18505,18503,18504],"tags":[18494,18495,18501,17355,18497,1210,264,13526,267,13973,388,40,18498,2859,18502,18496,12231,18499,18500,12044],"class_list":["post-13105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blind","category-five-senses","category-havanese","category-simplicity","tag-andrea-bocelli","tag-beauty-in-the-eyes-of-the-beholder","tag-bentley","tag-blind","tag-blindness","tag-blog","tag-courage","tag-dog","tag-faith","tag-havanese","tag-humbled","tag-inspiration","tag-intervention","tag-memories","tag-sight","tag-simplicity","tag-smell","tag-sound","tag-taste","tag-touch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13105"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13117,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13105\/revisions\/13117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}