Is It Clean?

Living in the Midwest, our winter months are often pretty miserable. There are days of cold, rain, snow, and sleet. Skies can often be gloomy and quite depressing, to say the least.

It is in times like these that my thoughts turn to warm, comforting foods — anything to take the chill off and warm the inside.

Making a pot of chili on a cold day

There is really nothing like a big pot of chili to fit that bill. I like to make this dish in our handy crockpot, assembling all the required ingredients and adding all of this into the pot for a slow simmer throughout the day. The reward? A filling and warming bowl of chili that somehow satisfies my belly and my soul as well.

It was after such a day that I had a moment, one that is definitely connected to my diagnosis of macular degeneration.

Difficulty with washing a crockpot

Following this lovely meal, it was time to clean up the cookware involved in its creation. Our crockpot happens to have a black interior. I found myself scrubbing this pot quite intently, as there were spots where things had cooked on and it was quite difficult to remove.

I did a bit of a double-take when I had the realization that I could not, in fact, really see the annoying cooked-on items. It was a constant scrub-and-feel motion, checking to see if I had finally been successful in removing it. I did, in fact, remove the pesky spots and proceeded on with the clean up.

Determining cleanliness is difficult with low vision

As per usual, I continued to think about this occurrence after the fact. It was then that I had a breakthrough of sorts; something in my world came together and really made sense.

Living with myopic macular degeneration (MMD) has created a different view of my world. Defining dirtiness becomes difficult with backgrounds that can often mask an appearance. A kitchen counter of marble or granite can really hide aggravating crumbs, again requiring the use of the wipe-and-feel motion to ensure that all is swept away.

All this is to say, MMD definitely works against me being able to see what needs to be seen.

I had an epiphany

When we retired from the workforce 10 years ago, my husband and I mutually agreed to hire a cleaning service as kind of a reward for our years of hard work. I wonder if, in reality, I was beginning to struggle with this process of cleaning? Were my attempts to keep up with this household chore of cleaning and not catching all that needed to be done really a sign of something else?

My vision history has always reflected strong nearsightedness. With myopic macular degeneration being a part of my life, I had an epiphany of sorts. To be able to clean something, anything, successfully, one really needs to see what is there.

Another challenge of living with MD

With MMD, the difficulties become apparent with background colors obscuring what is there. I will just add this happenstance to the long list of "challenges" to endure.

I think Forrest Gump said it best: "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get."