Passing the Braille Baton

As some of you may have already read, I had eye surgery on April Fools. You can read about it here. The eye surgery means that I’m forced to chill out and take it easy. This has been hard for me, but made so much easier because my parents are in town. If they were not here, I doubt I would give myself all the permission needed to heal in peace and stillness. And for me, stillness is the key. … Stillness is a challenge. … Stillness is really tough.

The point of my post today isn’t about healing though. It is about passing on the virtual braille baton. As some of you may have read, in this blog post, I am raising money for braille literacy. From March 17 through April 19, I pledged to walk the equivalent of a marathon–that’s 26.2 miles–and raise $262. I personally wanted to put in double the miles and raise double the money.

So a quandary arises. I have to walk all these miles, but I also have to be still and heal.

Well, I decided to call in the cutest pinch hitter. Here he is walking in a Japanese bamboo forest.

Yep, my pinch hitter is my not-quite-14-month-old nephew … Justice. I asked Justice’s mom, my amazing sister, to help me out. I asked this team of amazing people because of Justice’s love for books. The little monster isn’t even 14 months old yet and he has a clear passion and love for books, like me, his Titi Lisamaria.

Also, his mom and him walk regularly and he often brings his shoes to his mom and tells her he wants to “go, go, go!” So clearly, Justice is ready to handle the virtual braille baton I’m passing him so that I can heal and put in a last few miles toward the end of the Braille Across America Challenge.

Let me illustrate with adorable pictures my nephew’s love of books.

And here is one more picture of him demonstrating his readiness to walk.

This kiddo clearly loves books. I know deep in my heart that my sister will raise him loving books and wanting all books to be accessible so that blind people like his Titi, and blind kids, can read and love books the way he does.

With their combined effort, the three of us have put in a marathon’s worth of miles–as of today. But we still need donations. If you feel like being amazing today, please donate here:

With much love and grattitude,

Signing off for now,

Bay Area Blind Mom