Dear Jared,

As you know I had the privilege this week of attending the Platform Conference in Nashville.  The timing was perfect since I’m preparing to launch my photography business and this conference is all about how to successfully build a platform and “get noticed in a noisy world”.  3 days, 9 speakers, incredible stories and inspiration – seriously good stuff.

I was engaged.  I took copious notes. I was a model student.  I was figuring out how I could apply this to my own life moving forward.  And then, Michael Hyatt gave the closing remarks.

I don’t remember his exact words but he asked the audience to start with the dream and work backward.  He asked us to imagine what we wanted our lives to look like in 20 years.

And without a warning – my throat closed up and tears welled in my eyes.

In that moment, with no conscious effort on my part, every other thought was swallowed up by the realization that in 20 years…you might be completely blind.

It’s not that I’m not confident that our lives will be full of joy and love.  It’s not even that I’m afraid.  I have faith in the undoubtedly miraculous story that God has written for us.

It’s simply the fact that you wont be able to see. You are the most kind and generous person I know, the man I love, admire, cherish, the light of my life and yet your world will be dark. We want to protect those we love and I can’t protect you from this. It’s a painful thought for me, and in that moment I wanted to cry about it.

Somehow in that room of 100+ business owners and entrepreneurs I managed to swallow the lump and reclaim my thoughts (can’t say the same for right now as I type this).  I re-focused on the message and continued to absorb the ‘wisdom’ being offered from the stage.

Later that night, already back home with you and the kids, I started reading our parting gift from the conference (“Do the Work” from Steven Pressfield). In a nutshell, this short book full of “quotables” is about pushing past resistance to achieve your dream.  I read this:

“A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman.  It’s only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.”

Those words, they immediately planted themselves right in the center of my heart.  How can I claim to have faith and simultaneously feel sadness for what is supposedly inevitable?  Not more than 12 hours later I’m on Facebook and see that the Foundation Fighting Blindness posts a link to this article about a vision restoring retinal prosthesis for those with advanced RP. It’s not a cure, but it’s a beginning.

So to my husband on this Valentine’s Day, with childlike faith, let’s cheer on the geniuses and madmen who have the audacious belief that they can cure blindness.  For you and I personally, we will work hard, push past the resistance and  follow our unconventional, crazy hearts.  We will believe the unbelievable.

Meanwhile, remember this verse:

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. ² “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”

³ “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.

John 9:1-3

I’ll let this child tell the rest of the story:

(Grace, age 3)