In Reading for Wellness, we challenge Michelle Superle to win back wellness by re-engaging what brings her the most comfort and joy—reading. She’s looking for wellness, and we’re looking for wellness fuel.

“A blind man can make art if what is in his mind can be passed to another mind in some tangible form.”—Sol LeWitt

What if closing your eyes could help you see life more clearly?

Sometimes it can. This is one truth revealed in Cockeyed, Ryan Knighton’s memoir about gradually going blind.

He’s not advocating blindness as the new meditation or anything. But according to Knighton, you learn a lot about yourself—and how you make your way through the world—when your vision fades.

You could play the game where you stumble around blindfolded all day, or, you could go along for the ride in Cockeyed. (We tried both—the book takes the cake!)

A story about losing sight of the world isn’t quite your sunny afternoon walk in the park type of book. But Knighton’s insights are surprisingly uplifting. He has a lot to say about what it really takes to live a life of observation and fulfilment.

Knighton covers the predictable material from an irreverent perspective. He reflects on how the “normal” things we do all the time are so rare and precious by describing how he needs a waitress to escort him to the washroom at restaurants (blessing or curse?). His take on how much we miss by relying on our eyes at the expense of our ears, nose, and fingers includes the story of how he “recognized” a girl he went to high school with by her perfume.

Set your eyes on the pages of Cockeyed if you’re ready to see life differently.

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Michelle Superle writes books plus other stuff and earns a living teaching people how to do it too. She gets her wellness on by running around with the one lovely human male and the 20 beautiful horses she lives with (one of which is named Princess Tulu!).