“When I Asked, ‘Who Are You’”

​When I Asked, “Who Are You?”

Familiarity doesn’t disappear… visibility does.

Yesterday, I asked someone a question I never thought I’d have to ask.

“Who are you?”

And the silence that followed said everything my eyes could not.

She’s someone I’ve known for years. Not casually… but in shared spaces, conversations, familiarity. The kind of person you don’t expect to ever have to reintroduce themselves to you. But there I was… standing right in front of her, searching her face for recognition that wasn’t coming. Not because she had changed.

But because my vision had.

What people didn’t see in that moment… was everything that came before it.

The anticipation.

The quiet fear.

The wondering…

Will this be the moment I have to explain what’s happening to me? To be clear - that’s very uncomfortable for me as well.

I’m not just navigating moments with people.

I’m learning how to live again.

Spaces I once knew like the back of my hand… now feel unfamiliar.

A keyboard I once moved across without thinking… now requires intention.

Everything looks the different from my view, and nothing feels the same.

Somewhere in the middle of all of this… I realized something. This isn’t just loss.

This is transition.

✨ 

1. The Valley Will Introduce You to a Version of Yourself You’ve Never Met

There is a version of me being formed in this season that I didn’t meet until my vision changed.

The valley has a way of stripping away what you relied on so you can discover what’s been inside you all along.

I thought I knew how to navigate life… until I had to relearn it.

The valley is not where you stay.

It is where you are introduced to your strength.

✨ 

2. You May Not Recognize the Terrain… But God Still Knows the Way

There are moments now where I walk into places I’ve been a hundred times… and still have to pause.

Recalculate.

Reorient.

Rethink everything.

And if I’m honest?

It’s overwhelming.

Because I can’t rely on what I used to.

I can’t trust my memory the same way.

I can’t move the way I used to move.

But I’m learning that even when I don’t recognize what’s in front of me… my incredible God still does. He hasn’t lost sight of me… even when my sight has changed.

✨ 

3. Becoming Requires Letting Go of How Things Used to Be

This part?

This is the hardest.

Becoming sounds beautiful…

until you realize it requires release.

Letting go of how I used to move.

How I used to see.

How I used to show up in the world without thinking twice.

There is grief here.

Real grief.

And there is also growth.

I am not who I used to be.

And I’m not fully who I’m becoming yet either.

I am in between.

And God is still present there too. Right beside me, holding my hand and holding me up!

💔 Back to the Moment

So when I asked, “Who are you?”

It wasn’t just a question.

It was a reflection of everything I’m walking through right now.

I didn’t forget her.

My eyes just couldn’t remember. ☹️

🙏🏾

So if I ever ask you who you are…

Please. Don’t take it personally.

Just remind me.

And if you find yourself in a season where life feels unfamiliar… where things don’t look the way they used to… where you feel like you’re relearning how to be…

Know this:

You’re not lost.

You’re becoming.

Give yourself grace.

God is still guiding you… even here.

🖤

Leslie A. Council

Diary of an Angry, Black and Blind Girl

angryblackandblind.blogspot.com