A Shift in Focus

Meet a Blind Author…My Friend, Amy Bovaird

In life, I’m constantly blessed to meet wonderful friends, like Amy, who inspire me. An author friend of mine, Rebecca Theisman, introduced us to each other, knowing  we shared the same eye disease, Retinitis Pigmentosa. However, Amy also is hearing impaired, yet she is much further down the road of her writing career. Two years ago, she published her memoire, and is currently preparing to launch her sequel in November.

Her first book allowed me to travel down memory lane, re-experiencing fears, doubts, pride, and conquering all. Lots of parallels to identify with and enough differences to be unique.

Well, it’s time for you to meet Amy…in her own words

A Shift in Focus

After nearly ten years in the Middle East and a lifetime of teaching overseas before that, when I returned back home my focus was still on other countries. I had trouble separating my traveling persona from my everyday person and settling into small town life but I knew my elderly mother needed me.

My father had recently passed away and I missed him terribly so my writing focused on my experiences abroad, re-adapting to life in a small town and my father, intertwining elements of faith in everything I wrote. The one thing I shunned writing about was my eye condition—Retinitis Pigmentosa—a genetic disease robbing me of my sight. Though I’d known about it for over twenty years, I always saw well enough to live the kind of life I wanted and pursued all my goals—putting up with my progressive clumsiness.

A few years after my return home, I started my first blog called Writings from Amy’s Wood Loft. Looking back, my blog was like a coat rack, simply a place to hang writing. Then, I didn’t know how to create a sense of community with my readers. In the world of blogging, I now see how unfocused it was.  But starting a blog was a big step in my writing journey. Although comments came rarely, I tried to develop a consistent habit of writing. 

While I was moving forward in my writing, I seemed to “tumble forward” and crash into things whenever I moved as my vision took a turn for the worse. A new teaching job propelled me to seek help through an Orientation and Mobility Training program to learn how to use a white cane. With God’s sense of humor, He paired me up with a trainer who not only embodied my worst fears, he also made me confront them. My trainer was completely blind.

In 2010, I abandoned Amy’s Wood Loft. I developed a new website and blog..  My first entry in September of that year was called “Beams and Blindness.” It offered glimpses into my early training. With that post, I took my first tentative step in publicly acknowledging myself as a vision-impaired individual. That mobility training changed my life.

Although my mindset didn’t shift overnight, I gradually began to see myself as more “able” and independent. I started writing about my vision loss and what everyday life was like for me. In addition, I joined sight support groups, finding strength in sharing my feelings with others who had the same struggles.

One topic kept resurfacing in polarizing extremes—mobility training, generating a furor of responses in my groups. I discovered learning to use a cane frightened many. I had been there.

But God had patiently shown me how to overcome my fears and trust Him with my “faith rod” (Psalm 23:4). He shaped a book in my heart to encourage others who struggled with using a white cane. Writing about my experiences showed me how God had worked in my life to provide for my needs—but none of this was public. In February 2014 I reached another turning point by blogging “My story with RP.” When I named my eye condition, I removed the shroud of secrecy and drew others to me.

Mobility Matters: Stepping Out in Faith, came out on October 4, 2014. This was where my faith walk met my physical walk. Publishing my memoir catapulted me to a new level of awareness since I encountered other vision-impaired and blind role models. Losing my vision wasn’t a life sentence and I didn’t have to hide that I couldn’t see. My life with or without vision loss would be what I made it. I chose a positive attitude and gratitude.

I began speaking about what a difference that choice made, and know what obstacle we each face, we have the same choice. God continued to create opportunities to share my message of hope and faith through my book, my blog and my speaking engagements. One of the groups I most enjoy being a part of is the Lions Club, which I joined about a year after Mobility Matters came out. Becoming a Lion has given me a targeted outlet to serve others, which is also what being a Christian is all about. I’m now the secretary of our club.

God was growing me through these activities. The more I saw how others coped with their vision loss, the more I accepted my own and found I referred to the constant mishaps as ‘adventures.’ Threads of humor filled the pages. As I grew my readership, sighted readers remarked, “I never thought about that. Thank you for sharing.” My blog posts became a bridge between the sighted and vision-impaired communities. The basis of those blog posts make up my new memoir, Cane Confessions: The Lighter Side to Mobility-to be released November 15.

I’m glad we celebrate Blindness Awareness Month to put a spotlight on the challenges those with vision loss battle. But it’s also to show the world what accomplishments we have made in spite of the fears and obstacles we face every day. Over the past ten years, God has shifted my thinking away from the losses to gratitude and gains for what I’ve gained in insight. If we make ourselves available, He can shift—and sift—us all for His service.

You can follow me on the following links:

My Facebook Author Page

My Website:

Book Trailer (Mobility Matters)

Signed copy of my book
Amazon link to Mobility Matters

Audio version on Audible.com

The White Cane Song (a children’s song/video)

© 2016, Jena Fellers. All rights reserved.