"Nothing in Particular"

For some reason, I had this story about Helen Keller (who was both blind and deaf) from a past young women's lesson come to mind this morning and wanted to share it. Makes me wonder what joys we are missing out on as we walk through life and forget to take the time to notice the blessings and gifts, the tender mercies, from our Heavenly Father that are constantly before us.

President David O. McKay once told an experience of Helen Keller’s. He said:

“Have you ever read Helen Keller’s comment on a girl who had just taken a walk in the woods, who in answer to Helen’s question, ‘What did you observe?’ replied, ‘Nothing in particular.’

“ ‘How is it possible,’ Helen asked herself, ‘to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note? I, who cannot see, find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch. I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough shaggy bark of a pine. In the spring I touch the branches of trees hopefully in search of a bud, the first sign of awakening Nature after her winter’s sleep. Occasionally, if I am very fortunate, I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song.

“ ‘At times my heart cries out with longing to see all these things with physical eyes, but if I can get so much pleasure from mere touch, how much more beauty must be revealed by sight. And I have imagined what I should most like to see if I were granted the use of my eyes—even for just three days!’ ” (Treasures of Life [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1962], pp. 394–95).