Seeing with the Heart

I once saw a movie made in 1962 about a rebelious girl who was blind, and a teacher with so much love, amazing patience and devotion who could make her read and spell words. The teacher was Anne Sulivan and the girl, Helen Keller. Helen recounted how she first learned about words:

“We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honey-suckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten, a thrill of returning thought, and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me.”

Helen immediately asked Anne for the name of the pump to be spelt on her hand and then the name of the trellis. All the way back to the house Helen learned the name of everything she touched and also asked for Anne’s name. Anne spelled the name “Teacher” on Helen’s hand. And that's what she would also become: A Master of her own destiny! She died on June, the first, 1968, peacefully, while she was sleeping. "No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit." Helen Keller


Eyes that love live not solitary!
No matter if a block was put,
She saw beyond the ordinary.
She could see with her eyes shut.
Ana Antunes