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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Invisible Scars

God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars.  ~Elbert Hubbard


I have a scar on my left knee from crashing my bicycle into the pavement when I was a kid.  And another smaller one just above it on my left thigh from sliding across a blade of wet grass while playing with the water hose on a hot, summer day in childhood. 

I have three scars on my tummy from a laparoscopic surgery to remove my gallbladder in the year 2000.  And two faint, barely visible, c-section scars from the safe deliveries of my two baby boys in the years 1999 and 2003. 

My most recent physical scar lies on my upper chest, just above my left breast, from the removal of a basal cell carcinoma that finally broke me from my summer tanning habit. 

I have a few more physical scars here and there.  Nothing very noticeable or worth talking about...

I do, however, have a few scars on my soul as I am sure most all of us do or certainly will, at some point in our lives. I believe it is impossible to go through life without obtaining a few.  

When we are first hit with heartache/grief/a life storm that knocks us off our feet and brings us back slowly to our knees in prayer and then eventually to our feet again, we are left with an invisible scar.

Some, more observant ones, may see it in our eyes or hear it in our voices...usually the ones who are also marked with a few themselves.  But for the most part, the scars upon the soul are invisible, only noticeable and occasionally felt by the bearer. 

I am thankful for my scars.  Each and every one of them.  They have built my character and made me the person I am today.  A person I am, on most days, pretty proud to be. They remind me that I have loved deeply, and given myself completely to the art of living.  

The saddest thing in the world to me is to see someone get burned by life and to just give up on it....to let that wound fester by constantly picking at it and never allowing it to heal over and become the scar it was meant to be.  

Scars are beautiful and none of us were meant to spend our years on this earth without acquiring any.  How does that famous Abe Lincoln quote go?   And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years... 

Love that! 

I guarantee you any well-lived life is one with many scars.  Not saying, by any means, that we should go out in search of them. Most of my scars, both the physical ones and the ones upon my soul, hurt and I mean BAD, before they turned to scars, especially the invisible ones. 

What I am saying is to not be afraid to risk getting hurt a time or two in your life.  Because while yes, you will most likely experience pain and heartache at some point, you will also eventually realize that most of the time, the scar that is left over was worth everything you paid for it. 





Written in response to Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop prompt number 1. Scarred

Mama's Losin' It

15 comments:

  1. I'm so very proud to belong to you D. I know you are not one for PDA's...but dammit, I love ya! ;-)

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  2. This is such an important thing to remember -- I love how you say the scars have made you the person you are proud to be today. It's so true, and a difficult lesson. Well said! And thank you for your kind words. It seems you always have some for me. Thanks. :)

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  3. This is beautiful! What a great post Diane.
    I am trying to get back to blogging and commenting again. I've missed you. xoxo

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  4. I love this post. You have made me look upon my emotional scars in a whole different light.
    Very introspective you are!

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  5. So true. Those invisible scars are the ones that make us who we are...I mean really...They make us or break us. Thanks for a great uplifting post!!

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  6. I have never heard that Abe Lincoln quote— it's a good one! Beautiful post. I just stopped by from MamaKat's.

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  7. It's impossible to get through life unscathed, but it's the only way to learn life's lessons.

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  8. Sometimes it's hard to remember this - especially as we are being wounded. Loved this post. It's a great reminded to embrace the scars that form us.

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  9. Beautiful post! You are completely right - the scars we have is what makes us the person we are today.

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  10. Beautiful post. The emotional scars are truly the ones that take the longest to heal, but you are right that they do make us who we are today.
    Beautifully written!

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  11. What an absolutely beautiful post.

    i would not be who I am today if it weren't for those invisible scars. I wouldn't be the mother or wife that I am if I had not been hurt before. I cherish every moment of my life because I have learned not to take even a single second for granted.

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  12. So true. Every scar, inside and out, makes us who we are. Each line, each bump is what makes the map of our lives. Beautiful post!

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  13. Great Post. I think we is Austrlai really need stuff like thise right now.

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