Dialogue in the dark

Did you ever experience real darkness? When the difference between opened and closed eyes is just your feeling of staring into every dimension of black?

Today, ten volunteers from all over Europe and eight Bulgarians got the chance to put themselves into the shoes of blind people. How does it feel to have one sense less?

Equipped with a guiding stick for the orientation, one by one entered the dark room. From the minute you are losing the ability to see, you can basically feel how all of your other senses become stronger and take over control. Hearing the steps of the people around you, feeling the warm breeze of the  air conditioner and especially start using your hands and fingers to recognize people and things. You will see how amazingly fast our bodies try to adjust to the change.

This one step into the unknown, away from our comfort zone, felt more like a step into another dimension.  A dimension where our ordinary tasks, like sitting down on a table, making group work and having a nice tea party with some cake, needed to be seen from another perspective. Conversation and trust became the key words of every reflecting dialogue. Even if the strange new situation sometimes makes you feel lonely, helpless, scared, thoughtful, restricted or in some points powerful and inspired, for sure it builds a bond between the participants, because everyone needed each other.

Experiencing such a new and unknown world sets a lot of emotions free and illustrates the importance of trust. If you will make the step into the darkness you will start appreciating what you have and maybe the world will be a bit brighter than before.