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Hi, my name is George Abraham and welcome to Eyeway Conversations. My guest today is from Cape Town, South Africa. She is Lois Strachan. She is author, a speaker, a blogger, a podcaster, a disability advocate, and a part time rock musician. Hi, Lois, welcome!
Thank you so much, George. It is great to be with you.
So the pleasure is all mine. You know, I am an avid reader. And I saw in your profile that you were a best selling author. Let me ask you the first question, which is what do you write about?
Mostly at this stage, I've been writing about blindness, about inclusion. And all of my books focus on that broad topic but they're all approaching it from different standpoints. The first four books that I started writing are illustrated children's books. I started writing by accident. And there's a whole story behind that comment. And then from there, I moved into writing a memoir, called 'A different way of seeing - a blind woman's journey of living an extraordinary way'. And then the final book that I wrote that I published in 2021, is 'Pause for thought- seeing the world through the eyes of a guide dog'. And that's a memoir, based on the observations of my current guide dog. His name is Fiji.
That's interesting. So what is the story that was behind the first four books?
I wrote the books when I first became blind at the age of 21. And looking back now I can see that what I was doing at the time was really assimilating what I was learning about blindness techniques, tools, how to live, how to adjust the way of living to accommodate the fact that I had become blind. I didn't see it that way at the time. They were books that I wrote because my computer teacher was telling me that the best way for me to learn to use a computer with a screen reader was to spend time writing and creating things on the computer. And the books came out of that.
So it's very prudent advice and very productive as far as you are concerned. And where would these books be available if somebody wanted to read them,
All of my books are available on Amazon. They are also available through my website, loistrachan.com. And 'A different way of seeing' is also available on most of the audio bookstores. And then, finally, all but one of the books are also available on Bookshare.
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You talked about losing your sight when you were 21.
I was diagnosed with diabetes when I was six years old. And I don't know whether I wasn't aware of the complications or the possible complications of diabetes, or whether as a rather stubborn six year old, I just chose to ignore them. But I had no idea that poor management of my diabetes might lead to significant consequences. My blindness is directly a result of my diabetes. And I was in my final year at university. I was doing a Bachelor of Arts degree when I noticed that I was having problems with my eyesight. What followed was about 14 months of laser surgery, followed by six surgical operations. The end of it resulted in my becoming totally blind. As you say, I mean, it's obviously a big adjustment and I consider myself incredibly fortunate that I had the resources, the aptitude, the attitude, the support, that really helped me make that transition. I'm also a problem solver by nature. And I think that really helped me because my entire life became a little series of problems to be solved. And I was able to really think my way through that whole transition period. I think my story is unusual that I made that conversion, that transition incredibly quickly, from being told that I was totally blind, to making the decision to just okay, let me go and see what is still going to be possible for me. But having said that, it's a continuous journey. And it's, I think one of the things that I love about my life is that I'm able to view it as a series of things to learn and experience and to do and to try.
What was the kind of support that you got from say, friends and family, siblings if any?
I was really fortunate because for the most part, my support system in terms of my family, and my friends were really really strong. I did have a couple of people who turned away and walked out of my life. And that's almost inevitable. I think we all experienced that when going through this kind of transition. And it's okay. And it was okay. But for the most part, the support that I got, and have always had since then, has really been fantastic. And I'm immensely grateful to my friends and my family for their ongoing support. They allow me to do and support me, when I do some crazy things. They kind of look at me shake their head and go, okay, what's gonna happen next? And that really is fantastic. But they're able to let me do that.
You also do a lot of blogging. Now, do you think a blindness probably kind of encouraged you or goaded you or push you into writing? Would you have been a writer if say, blindness does not did not visit you?
I can't say for sure. I can tell you that I was studying archaeology when I was at university. And that was kind of like one of my first realizations was a blind archaeologist might not happen. So I can't say what I would have done if I hadn't lost my sight. I certainly don't think that I would have become a writer, I had no plans to. But I really have fallen into writing. And it is very much part of my life now. And you know, after six books, and something like 500 blogs that I posted, it's very much part of my everyday life now.
So I presume that these blogs would be life experiences and life opinions, views and basically, talking about your day to day experiences, I guess.
Very much. So, I blog on a number of different what's the word I'm looking for...
Topics?
Thank you. I blog on a number of different topics from travel through to disability awareness through to my own life. My guide dog writes blogs for me as well once a month. So they really do...it just depends on whatever grabs my imagination at the time when I'm sitting down to write a blog each week. I have shared some of my song lyrics on my blog. I've shared experiences of speeches that I've given, travel that I've done, some of the organizations that I've worked with, it really expands every aspect of my life.
And what is your blog called? And where can one find your blog?
My blog is the beyond sight blog, and can be found on my way website, loisstrachan.com
Tell us a little bit about your friend Fiji because you seem to be very fond of it orf fond of her rather.
She is very much part of my life as well. She is my third guide dog. She's currently eight years old. And in fact, we have been working together for seven years now, I think. And, you know, I really enjoy working with a guide dog. I do obviously, when I travel, I use my white cane and my mobility with my white cane is possibly not as strong as it ought to be. Because my first choice would be my guide dog. But she's so much a fantastic support for me and a companion as well. So the idea to write a book about Fiji's life came out of observing the world through her eyes, her perspectives because she has the ability to say things about disability, about life, about social awareness, that possibly I might not be able to say. So it gives a different perspective on the world.
You also are a motivational speaker. So how did that journey start and what's the kind of motivational speaking you do? And do you enjoy it?
I do enjoy speaking. I think it's something that I've been involved with for a very long time. My life seems to be a series of accidents. I never really thought about becoming a speaker. And then I got involved with an organization called Toastmasters International that teaches communication and leadership skills. And once I became immersed in the Toastmasters world, I started sharing my story with a broader audience within Toastmasters, and people that I met kept saying to me, you need to be telling your story, out in the world, out in society. So it really started there. And it's something that I've picked up. I consider myself a transformational speaker, rather than a motivational speaker, largely because I believe the only person that I can motivate is myself. I can inspire others, I can create transformation, change in the way they act, the way they think, what they believe. So, in that sense, I consider myself a transformational speaker or possibly an inspirational speaker. But I also do other work using my speaking in organizations around disability awareness.
Right. So I was also reading about you and I saw that you are a licensed coach. So what does that mean?
I have a diploma in coaching skills. And I use my coaching pretty much every day of my life. When I'm working with people, if I'm working with people on projects, coaching comes into so many different aspects of my life because I'm working with people. And coaching is really, it's about questioning skills, to open up awareness, to open up possibilities in the way people see their lives, their realities. So, coaching is very much part of what I'm doing within every aspect of my life. But I'm also working directly with others, with disabilities, helping them to look at new possibilities in their lives.
Lois, you are married to Crai. And I'm going to ask you this question because in India, you know, very often when a blind person gets married, normally, they look for a spouse who also has a disability. So what's the story? Is there a story in the Craig Lois partnership?
There is quite a story. Craig is sighted. We met through music.
Wow.
And I attended a music festival in Cape Town. And Craig looked out into the audience. His band was playing on stage, he looks out into the audience, saw my guide dog and went, ah what a beautiful guide dog and we met the following day. And I think it was my guide dog that he fell in love for first. From there, we became involved. I then poached him from his band, started working in playing music with him. We were married the following year. And that was now 24 years ago.
Wasn't it Shakespeare who said, if music be the food of love, play on?
It was indeed.
So you also did mention of your visit to India. So when was that and where did you come in India and what brought you to India?
I have always loved traveling and becoming blind hasn't done anything to diminish my love of travel. Coming to Kolkata in India, we traveled in April 2019. And we were there for about 10 days, primarily because Craig had a business trip. And I needed some time away from Cape Town to finish updating my memoir. So that's actually a very important special memory for me to remember sitting in the hotel room, working frantically to finish rewriting areas of my book. And I absolutely loved my time in Kolkata. I love the food. I love the people. I love the experience, the immersive experience, there's just so much going on always. And yeah, I mean, I've been really fortunate with the amount that I've been able to travel since losing my sight. I think I'm now up to 24 different countries since becoming blind. And it's always a real treat to travel to experience new places, new cultures. And it's just yeah, it was definitely one of my favorite passions.
You did touch upon music and the fact that your partnership with Craig originates with music. And you also did mention that you like rock music because you also write your songs. So how do you actually deliver these songs to audiences?
Well, let me go back to long, long ago. When I was very very young, people used to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. The only answer that I could give them was that I wanted to be a musician. And people kind of looked at me and said, but that's not a particularly practical answer. So I became very hesitant to explore playing music. First thing I did off becoming blindat 21, a week after my diagnosis, I joined a rock band. And music has always, for me been a way of giving myself the space and the time to just have fun. And to do something I love doing and reading is as much the same for me. In terms of, you know, I am a guitarist, I play piano and keyboard. I am a songwriter but primarily, I'm a vocalist. And, in fact, we recently put some of our songs on to Spotify. So if you look up the band, Tuesday's Child on Spotify, the album is songs for somebody. And there are 11 songs, maybe 10 songs that are available, all of all of which are with me singing, all written by me. And yeah, I love playing live to audiences. It's very different. It's unlike any other experience of playing live on stage and just being in the music.
Tell me, you picked up the guitar and the piano and all that after you went blind or you learned the instruments as you grew up.
I'd always been playing music. So I started playing well, i've not really played piano, but playing around on a piano, making noise more than music when I was very very young. And I had a few piano lessons. I had a few guitar lessons as I grew older, but I really only started playing after losing my sight. I certainly only started writing music after I became blind.
Right. So are like your blog, are these songs also kind of biographical in nature?
That is so hard to answer. Generally I see art as being more about the way it is perceived or interpreted by the person who's listening and the person who's reading, the person who's exploring it. They are, I have no doubt that they are some aspects that are very personal but It's really hard to say.
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Probably you are the first podcaster I'm actually meeting and talking. So, you know, how do you decide that you want to speak to somebody on a podcast? What are the kinds of topics you'd like to talk about? Is it all disability related or is it generally life related?
When I first started the podcast, it was in partnership with an organization called Accessible South Africa. And it was primarily about travel for persons with disabilities. So for the first few years that I was podcasting, my topics, my subject matter revolved around people who had traveled, what their experiences were like, some of the recreation, the sports activities that were available to people with disabilities. And then once COVID hits and we didn't know what the world was quite going to look like. I started questioning whether it might not be a good time for me to start shifting into a broader topic. So for the last year, the topic has been on more general topics related to disability, still across the spectrum of disabilities, not focusing purely on blindness. But it's given me the opportunity to chat to people on all sorts of different topics related to disability. In terms of how I find people to interview. If anything, I have a list of people. And it's a question of who is the next person that I can connect/contact with. So I very seldom run out people to talk to. I'm very curious about people. So I love hearing their stories. And also, I am a member of a Facebook group for podcasters which matches podcast guests and podcast. Thats been a rich source of people to interview,
Would you like to share three things with our audience learnings from your life which you believe are transformative?
I think, for me, there are a few lessons that I keep coming up against that are reinforced by almost everything that happens in my life. The first of those is that if I'm going to do something new, I'm going to approach it believing that I will be able to do it. And all I have to do is to figure out how because that shifts the conversation between that inner voice that says you might not be able to do it because that often stops us from moving forwards. So I'm always going to approach things from the perspective of I will be able to do it. I just need to work out how. Another thing that I have learned is that one of the best ways to work through challenges that seem overwhelming is to take them one step at a time. Because if I'm looking at the whole thing, the whole task, the whole challenge, it can often seem overwhelming but if I look at it, I just need to figure out the next step. It's amazing how often taking just one step helps me to learn more ways to go forwards. It opens new opportunities. And suddenly, things become a lot easier. And then the final one is something of a reality check against what I've already said, I know in my life, there are going to be a few things that I'm going to come up against that I'm not going to be able to do. So what my blindness has taught me is that there is so much that I can do, why should I waste my time worrying about the very few things that I cannot.
I think all these three thoughts are beautiful, and I think all of us to come across opportunities to experience these lessons in our lives. So Lois it's been wonderful talking to you. Thank you for taking the time and wish you the very best and we will stay in touch.
Thank you so much and if any of your audience would like to make contact with me, it'd be great for them to hop onto my website loisstrachan.com
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