I looked out my window today and I was shocked!
I’ve looked through this same window like forever
Looking with eyes borrowed from family and friends
Viewing with eyes borrowed from nice colleagues
I borrow from any and every one willing to lend me
An eye or two, for now or for a while: I make do
With whatever I borrow, living off the pity of those
Who are willing or feel compelled to lend me
Their normal eyes, because mine is squinted.
I don’t use my eyes because they said it’s strange
I don’t use my eye because I am ashamed. I don’t
Want to be the odd one so I hide them. I feel better
Acting like I have no eyes so I can get away
Borrowing from those who have, safer than to lift up
My head and let the world see that I am different.
Life has been miserable, living by borrowing;
Borrowing to belong, borrowing to be accepted.
Well, I had enough so today I made the ultimate
Decision: to redefine my values and expectations,
To change companies if I have to. From now onwards:
No more borrowing, no more tagging or trying to fit.
Who said their eyes are normal and mine is not?
Who said their sight is better than mine?
I let them define me. I let them label my uniqueness
As a handicap and I have lived in shame, hiding
Because I could never meet up their definitions
Of normal, their expectations of okay. From today,
I will wear my eyes just as it is – call it what you like
I will wear my eyes with gratitude: I’m not blind.
I may only be able to look through this window today
But come tomorrow, I’m stepping out, bold and strong
With these cool eyes of mine that were once despised:
Eyes that shows me a world so different from theirs.
I forgive you if all you see of my eyes is the squint
Instead of special, valued, beautiful, but I know better.
It’s okay to be different: ain’t nothing wrong with it.
It’s okay to have different definitions and expectations
And it’s okay to be you: I will be me and fell alright.
No more borrowing: I love me as I am, eyes and all.

In a world where values are constantly shifting, contentment appears as a shadow we are always chasing, never to catch up with. Life is defined and redefined at such speed, by those we assume should know better, whose evaluations exploit transient circumstances. As a result, we are all adrift, the shore of contentment apparently nowhere in sight, especially if we feel compelled to conform to those definitions.

In a world that increasingly scorns God and godliness, even Christians are carried along in this drift that is going nowhere. We look up to all the wrong places for answers that have been there from the beginning because we don’t want to appear odd, we don’t want to dare the trendy, we can’t afford to stand up for non-popular reasons, we won’t dare to stand out lest we be condemned by the venomous judgment of a world that is so quick to throw stones while bewailing being judged.

Everybody is dealing with issues, visible and invisible. I don’t know what your conditions may be but mine is my eyes. According to their terms, my eyes are squinted but who defined your eyes as normal and mine as not? Majority they claim, so minority suffers. Carried by these popular drifts, we withdraw because squinty eyes are considered unusual but who said unusual is not good? Who said unusual cannot be accepted? Who said unusual may not even be better than what we have regarded as usual?

Going by their definitions, a unique gift is considered a problem. I have allowed their little mindedness to downgrade what should have made me stand out and be different for all the best reasons I could creatively exploit. Because they don’t have it, can’t have it, and won’t regard it, I allowed their disregard to lure me to despise and waste what could have helped me make a difference in a world that is constantly striving for elusive uniformity. I let them label my asset a liability and consequently have struggled to drift along with the crowd that really doesn’t care about me, blaming the very thing that would have changed my life for the best. That is how many have drowned, striving to live such a strenuous existence of hiding their realities in order to live expected fables and fancies in order to be accepted.

I have been longing to live, to do, and to become the extraordinary but I never will attain that with borrowed eyes. Nobody ever goes beyond the shores of normal under normal conditions. Until I chose to stand aside and let the crowd drift on irrespective of what they thought, said, or made of my decision; until I chose to borrow no more to be like everyone else; until I chose to put on those same eyes I have been so ashamed of; until I stepped forward and looked, I realized that life was meant to be beautiful and truly is when we choose to be who we are instead of who we think we should become. When I looked with my eyes, I saw things no other’s eyes ever showed me.

It was only when I looked with my eyes that a world of possibilities, so far from their routine observations, burst before me, enabling me to go places their eyes never saw and become what they never could imagine. Being me, wearing my eyes, irrespective of their tags, has made all the difference in the way I live and now I know, that nobody ever stands out going the way they call normal. My squint was a privilege in truth and in deed and until I embraced it, became it, and mastered it, life was such a boring pattern. I don’t know what your own unique condition may be, and how you have allowed the definitions and expectations of others to influence you. If like me today, you will choose to be who you are with what you have, if you will dare beyond the barriers and explore, like me, you will discover that life is truly beautiful when we embrace our differences as assets and not liabilities. Then and only then do we redefine living and enjoy quality lifestyles.

Glory!