Confidence and independence through movement, adventuring and exploring…

“Moving is Living”

I seem to constantly remind and tell people that I am blind. Some of them remind me jokingly that, “we know Steve, we know you are blind”. My response is, “and this blindness I stare into is quite still”.

The stagnant and motionless world of the blind, I personally feel when compared to my life of having sight, can be very powerful. Powerful in the sense that it can lure us into a sedentary lifestyle. A lifestyle that we all deal with on some sort of level, whether you are sighted, blind or in between. My goal with Blind Endeavors, is to make all realize that moving is living and we can do all sorts of moving to live great lives. I am not talking about climbing Mount Everest, or kayaking the entirety of the mighty Colorado river. The act of moving to get work done at home is just as important as seeking out fun and adventurous places to explore. What you do to keep moving, accelerates your body forward and provides you with experience, and experiencing things leads to living life.

From my experience meeting and participating with other adaptive athletes, those individuals with traumatic physical injuries truly find a way to move and live. Maybe the act of adversity, the sudden loss of sight, the loss of an arm or paralysis of someones legs, motivates them to find a way to keep moving. Blind Endeavors Foundation wants to harness that power of movement, because it leads to more confidence and more independence. For example:

A person who has recently suffered a traumatic injury, or endured a debilitating disease will have to make a decision about pursuing rehabilitation. A rehabilitation center may be a hard place to go to, but they are going to jump start that movement I am talking about. Blind Endeavors Foundation feels that there is something important about adventuring, exploring and moving in the wilderness. Camping for a blind person might seem like a nightmare, because you have to deal with so much movement in unfamiliar dynamic settings. Camp fires, tents, rocks, logs, gear and equipment laying around are just a few obstacles to deal with. Packing away food to keep the wild animals away, cooking food on a hot camping stove and organizing your cold weather gear for an ascent up a 14,000 foot Rocky mountain are also other things to consider. When someone with a so called disability accomplishes these tasks independently or through teamwork, the confidence and independence bar is raised.

All of those skills learned by adventuring and exploring, I feel can be translated into peoples daily life back home, empowering them to persevere and drive forward no matter the level of adversity faced.