A Deeper Vision
After spending two weeks frantically searching for my favorite lost eyeglasses, I finally surrendered to letting them go.
Because I’ve worked on improving my patience for many years, my frantic response to losing my designer eyeglasses (that I had come to like too much) surprised everyone.
Apologies to the friends, family and neighborhood shopkeepers who subsequently encountered me acting and sounding like the spoiled brat I’ve spent decades trying to overcome. And yes, to neighborhood shop owners and staff: checking with you daily felt necessary.
Recalling San Francisco’s thriving late-1970’s mood — as the Hippie movement waned— I joined Lifespring, a for-profit (and expensive) part of the city’s Human Potential Movement. Along with meditation and group workshops, Lifespring encouraged members to “break out of our comfort zones.” One of the most physically demanding workshops was the Ropes Course.
“I was attached to the thick rope belay that was controlled by a team of experienced rock climbers. But I was petrified when it was my turn to climb the tree slats and jump off to grab the brass ring suspended just out of our reach,” I wrote later.
Somewhere inside myself, I found the courage to take the Ropes Course leap from a 50-foot tree. I missed grabbing the ring.
But the rope pulled taut about 10 feet above ground. The experienced team lowered me safely to the grassy clearing where my cheering Lifespring classmates helped me unhook.
It was a moment I’ll never forget. And I’ve made it a habit to recall that feeling of total exhilaration whenever I find myself hesitating about taking a risk or making excuses about something I’m afraid to tackle.
Bookmarks
When I turned to the Great Migration Library shelves for more inspiration, Mark Twain reached out first—with humor.
“Out of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most.”–Mark Twain
The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain: A Book of Quotations (Dover, 1998).
“Patience is not sitting and waiting, it is foreseeing. It is looking at the thorn and seeing the rose, looking at the night and seeing the day. Lovers are patient and know that the moon needs time to become full.”–Rumi
The Essential Rumi Quotes edited by Shahram Shiva (Rumi Network, 2023).
“Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them; but do not let them master you. Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight. True education combines intellect, beauty, goodness, and the greatest of these is goodness. When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.”-Helen Keller
Out of the Dark: Essays, Lectures, and Addresses on Physical and Social Vision by Helen Keller (Pantiasnos, 1912).
“For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end.”-Michele Obama
Becoming by Michelle Obama (Crown, 2021).
“Many people think that patience is a sign of weakness.
I think this is a mistake. It is anger that is a sign of
weakness, whereas patience is a sign of strength.”-Dalai Lama
For the Benefit of All Beings: A Commentary on the Way of the Bodhisattva by Dalai Lama (Shambhala Classics, 2009).
“As we rise to meet the challenges that are a natural part of living, we awaken to our many undiscovered gifts, to our inner power and our purpose.” –Susan L. Taylor
In the Spirit: The Inspirational Writings of Susan Taylor (HarperPerennial, 1994).
True Story
After meditating, reading, and taking many deep, cleansing breaths, I felt ready to make my final lost and found rounds before letting the glasses go.
Ending this lost tour at my supermarket Help Desk, the assistant wished me well with a smile before she seemed to have another thought. “Let me check the employee box,” she said before lifting up a stack of papers to reveal an open black wooden file box…and my glasses.
Do you have a story to share with us about eyeglasses?
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Great Migration Library website
The Great Migration Library’s highlighted links often connect you to more information, books at AbeBooks, or other independent booksellers, available at the time of our posting. Note: Before selecting from a link, sort through available offerings for desired condition; new or used.
Contact me at (dbpierce@icloud.com) for permission to reprint Great Migration Library photos, or photos from the Battle Family Archives.
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Join the Book Search
Please join in my continued search for information regarding From the Plantation to the Doctor’s Office by Dr. H. Roger Williams, published in the mid-1920s. Contact this great-granddaughter with any tips (from libraries, old media, elders and more — including psychic readers).
© 2026 Donna Battle Pierce and Great-Migrations.com. All photo rights reserved by Battle Family Archives.
Two years ago I found a pair of sunglasses at a yard sale. Having recently had cataract surgery I was free to wear non-prescription glasses. I knew the glasses were definitely not my style which heretofore had been Warby Parker tortoiseshell. I bought the one pair for $6 but ended up with two pairs for the same price. These glasses have changed my life: People stop me all the time asking where I bought them; asking if I’d sell them; asking if I was a celebrity hiding behind these cool, stylist glasses. I discovered that the glasses are a knockoff of a very expensive design: They’re white with a unique shape and subtle gold-tone trim. I must admit that I’m not above putting on the glasses when I want to make an “entrance “ and impress someone. And to think not once have I lost these $3 sunglasses.