Bf Barry says of summer starting, revving up, especially for co-host Kerry:

Barry says “hanging out and hanging in”

But as we greet the summer season, we’re hanging out with someone Kerry came across through Steph McCoy of the fashion, style, and inclusion platform "Bold Blind Beauty".

Of course, it’s about the representation which I think is very important, also for the generations that are younger than me, but also because I think we should celebrate these different perspectives.

And I also hope to show other travelers with low vision, that it’s us who get to share this perspective with the sighted travelers and I think there’s a cool aspect in that.

Marie Elise joins us on Outlook this week to talk travel, the value of experiencing the loveliness and power of the planet by making use of all our available senses, and adapting to the shifting sands of genetic vision degeneration.

Whether it’s chickens, hummingbirds, or horses, Elise wanted to be a veterinarian growing up and now wants to share her message of experiencing the sound of a hummingbird and not just seeing it, and joins us from South America with the sound of those chickens outside the door. She describes her special connection to horses and the trust it takes to ride with fading sight, but the benefits of emotional regulation for a deeper connection and something she could apply to life going forward were helpful for coping with all of it.

She says of her life travels, as she’s worked to befriend the anxieties that developed in her 20s as the realities of her Stargardt's blindness became clearer: “I feel like that if you live in another country, that culture and that country becomes a part of you. It really has helped me develop as a human.”

So whether it’s growing up amongst the bicycles in the Netherlands, studying Spanish in Spain after high school, or her time in Argentina, Marie has a dream going forward: Of course, it’s about the representation which I think is very important, also for the generations that are younger than me, but also because I think we should celebrate these different perspectives.

And I also hope to show other travelers with low vision, that it’s us who get to share this perspective with the sighted travelers and I think there’s a cool aspect in that.

Marie has a blog “Beyond My Blur” where she shares her own perspective on the places she’s been lucky to get to experience and how to do this, with the full spectrum of senses, more fully:

https://beyondmyblur.com