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