{"id":355746,"date":"2026-03-30T20:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355746\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T20:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:59:07","slug":"hawkes-bay-chef-on-losing-his-sight-they-say-the-blind-cant-lead-the-blind-i-disagree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355746\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawke\u2019s Bay chef on losing his sight: \u2018They say the blind can\u2019t lead the blind. I disagree\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI have some vision left, but it is not a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no central vision, or very, very little central vision left … so I can\u2019t really focus on anything anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

He still has peripheral vision and can read the likes of large print, but has been forced to adjust most areas of his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we identify ourselves with is generally based on vision. <\/p>\n

\u201cI used to be a painter, I used to be a chef<\/a>, I used to be a driver of cars, I used to be independent.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of those things fall away, and then all of a sudden you are there with \u2018Who am I? What\u2019s left now?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the big things that I have dealt with through the writing process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HowHow we identify ourselves is generally based on vision, says Earl Zapf, who began losing his sight in 2021.<\/p>\n

He said it can be lonely losing your vision, and he wanted to support others by sharing his own experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wrote it because I couldn\u2019t find anything that spoke honestly about it \u2013 what it is like to lose your sight.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I started to write it, really, to make sense for myself what it was like, and also I realised that this is going to affect others, obviously, as strongly as it affected me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely a strong motivation to lend a hand to others.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he states in the book that it is \u201cnot a manual\u201d, but rather a \u201ccollection of field notes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Zapf, originally from Germany, also shares how mindfulness meditation has helped him and pays special tribute to his partner, Shelley, who has been his rock.<\/p>\n

BOOK EXCERPT:<\/p>\n

I remember one doctor telling me to \u2018get my affairs in order\u2019 when I asked how long it might be before I lost my vision completely.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t that something you say to someone who\u2019s dying? For a fleeting moment, I wondered, was I dying? Was this terminal?<\/p>\n

I now understand that, for many people, the thought of losing their vision is as significant as dying.<\/p>\n

I was surprised to discover that one of my eye specialists felt that way.<\/p>\n

Digesting the diagnosis was difficult at first. Disbelief, denial, anger, grief, a potent cocktail of emotions wrestled for control of my mind.<\/p>\n

A book launch for Blindfulness is being held at Napier\u2019s Wardini Books at 5.30pm on April 10.<\/p>\n

The book will be available at Wardini Books and through the book\u2019s website<\/a>. It will also be made available via e-book or audiobook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI have some vision left, but it is not a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cI have no central vision,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1443,1561,23541,2108,2068,169,188101,2740,22220,1976,5838,293,2883,7240,11556,111,139,69,90,2682,5659,18916,213,1361,223,8229,1533,13632],"class_list":["post-355746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-about","tag-bay","tag-blind","tag-book","tag-cant","tag-chef","tag-disagree","tag-former","tag-going","tag-hawkes","tag-help","tag-his","tag-hope","tag-lead","tag-losing","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-others","tag-say","tag-sight","tag-sports","tag-that","tag-the","tag-they","tag-will","tag-written"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}