MY STORY
My story is one of overcoming. This, to me, is represented by the phoenix rising from the ashes after it burns. It is reborn and rises from the ashes to take flight once again. That has been my life so far. I was born with three eye conditions. Only one of those was necessary to make me completely blind. Growing up, I learned that this was a bad thing.
From experiencing discrimination as early as seven years old to having family members and strangers tell me they were praying for me to have sight, I grew up thinking this was some necessary part of me that was missing. I knew I was different, and I wanted to fit in. So I put pressure on myself to be the smartest, to stand out, to feel needed. When I was 16, I was taken to an intuitive healer. I was fascinated by what she was doing. Even though I didn’t get physical sight, I think what I got was much better. She told me she thought I had the gift to be able to heal. I would have taken classes then and there, but my religious upbringing was too conditioned.
Receiving A Gift
I did get another gift around that same time. I was shown a group of blind people who didn’t think it was bad to be blind. So, I started to see myself in a different way. I wouldn’t begin to accept these gifts until they manifested again after I was raped. I chose to stand and to not stay a victim whether society thought I had a right to it or not. I worked on myself through personal development seminars where I learned about the law of attraction, programs, deprogramming, and intention being more important than the how-to.
I learned about crystals and that I was able to heal by both identifying when someone was pointing a crystal at me and by pointing the crystal and sending energy through it. Through these seminars, I also saw how my blindness was actually a gift. I was given a sign of this on a solo night at a seminar where I was asked what it was like to be blind. The awe that came from feeling the exact moment day turned to night showed me that my perspective is unique. I now joke that I won the blindness lottery because of my three eye conditions, and I know I wouldn’t take sight if it was offered.
Overcoming
I still had a lot to learn. I dealt with toxic relationships and emotional abuse. I found the strength to leave. I came out as a lesbian and pagan overcoming the trauma brought on by my religious upbringing. I was able, through healing and patience, to explore how I feel about myself and my relationships. Deciding to share my passion came as a result of losing my wife. We were married for 2.5 months. I thought nothing would ever be okay again at first. She was that great love you never forget, and I didn’t know how I was going to move forward. Still, that phoenix energy remained. I knew that whatever happened, I was still here and I had to come out of the chasm I’d found myself in. As I used my skills, both known and newly learned, to help with my grief, I thought about all the other people suffering in the world, and I wanted to help them. That is my mission in life.