Listen with your heart

Blindness can make us see

Maria, at 78 years old, became blind because of degenerative cataracts in both eyes. She was in a protracted depression. She prayed to the Lord for strength.

She then realized that she could “see” with her hands, so she continued to sew and garden by feeling and groping, the only things she could do in her old age. If she failed to open a new window of her soul, she would think of suicide.

Her granddaughter asked her to stop and rest, and she would reply, “I am resting, my dear.” She was happier blind than when she could see. If you become deaf, you can hear. If you become blind, you can see. It is up to you — your soul yearns for the light.

Maria turned her deep darkness into a blinding light with the help of the Lord.

Beethoven — the deaf composer

It is the heart that composes, not the mind, not the ears. Ludwig van Beethoven, the great composer, ironically had a defective ear.

What he could not hear, he could see and would transform into music. His photographic memory enabled him to instantly write his new piece into a musical score.

He walked through nearby woods and “listened” to the trees swaying in the wind and composed a melody instantly. He watched the incandescent moon playing hide-and-seek with the clouds and composed an evening sonata. The music just oozed out of his soul. This was how he wrote one of his most famous masterpieces, Moonlight Sonata.

In the name of his spiritual survival, he was forced to let his heart turn into his eyes when his ears were failing. His impairment closed a window in his soul, but a new, irresistible window opened wide. It was the energy of the soul to survive and surmount great hurdles. Rather than suppress him, deafness made Beethoven more resolved and more creative in composing his greatest works.

The soul has many windows. When one is shut, one or two more open in the name of survival. The soul’s spiritual energy cannot be suppressed. It oozes out of the cracks, much like a volcano erupting from tremendous pressure.

Walls do not a prison make

If they jail you, you can let your soul wander endlessly in the woods. To fight madness, an inmate at Alcatraz, the infamous island prison, memorized dozens of books on grandmaster chess games. He had a photographic memory. He remembered almost every move of every game grandmasters played against each other. Yet, he had never played a single game in his life.

A journalist heard about his feat, interviewed him, and wrote a story in a chess magazine. When a grandmaster read the article, he visited Alcatraz and challenged the inmate to a game. After a long silence, he agreed.

The inmate thus played his very first chess game in his life — against a grandmaster — and he won. From memory, he based his moves on particular grandmaster chess games he had studied in the books — just from pure memory. The grandmaster hugged him in sheer admiration.

The green Filipino jailbird

(This was inspired by a real person I met as a consultant for a USAID-funded environmental project.)

Manong Ben was a forester by heart. He was jailed for killing his wife and her secret lover. He was in a protracted, deep depression for two years, talking to no one. He asked the Lord to save him. The Lord replied instantly. Hearing the story of the chess player, he realized that he could do the same — open new windows in his soul.

One night, he “left” his cell and roamed the rainforests in his mind. He could clearly hear the birds and monkeys calling out to him. He started writing a book with pencil and paper. When he ran out of paper, he wrote on toilet paper.

The book was about how monocrop tree plantations, propagated to produce paper from their soft pulp, triggered massive infestations of deadly worm borers that could destroy thousands of hectares of trees in a matter of weeks. Monocropping triggered forest epidemics. Manong Ben wrote that the only solution was simple — burn the entire plantation.

Writing instantly healed his depression — from total darkness to blinding light. His book was cited in a scientific journal, which made him famous. He was labeled the “green Filipino jailbird.” He was eventually pardoned because of his book award.

No one can stop a prisoner from roaming the earth if he wants to, or an astronaut from visiting other galaxies.