I guess most of us take our senses for granted and why shouldn’t we? I mean they work most of the time and never ask for any reward or thanks but I do stop and think sometimes how lucky most of us are.

The other day someone told me that a relation had gone blind due to a suspected stroke. After eighty years of sight this must be frightening, strange and very upsetting and the emotional trauma must be huge. One minute everything is in focus and colour and the next blackness. How does one begin to cope and come to terms with that?

Loosing any one of the sensory gifts we have must be very difficult but I can’t imagine any worse than blindness.

Why is it then that some folk risk their fortune by not taking necessary precautions? I see people using grinders and disc cutters with no eye protection or ear defenders and it shocks me to see this. It only takes a small fragment to fly off and its game over. One may not notice the effects of noise when young but believe me it can sneak up on one in later life and can impair one’s quality of hearing sound.

I guess that’s the point. We take these things for granted until they are gone or damaged and so often it is too late then. There is little point saying if only or what if once there is a problem so is it so hard to take steps to prevent these causes?

I understand that the other senses will increase to try and compensate for the loss of another but they can never replace them. No matter how much support we can offer or alternative prosthesis that are available they can never match the loss.

Not being able to smell a tangy fart may seem great but being unable to enjoy the scent of a new born baby or a meadow of flowers is tragic. No taste!! Without smell taste is redundant. Foods become a bland mass of the same.

So bear a thought for our senses and they are the essence of life.