DO YOU HAVE SCARS ?
It struck me this morning on the importance of our scars. Many of us carry them, some visible , some inside , some mentally but they are all scars of who we are and our journey taken to reach this point in our life.
Do they define you or do you let them take over ? Are they a positive reminder of how strong you are to overcome the battle or do you hide behind them in fear ?
I have many scars to show who I am and it was while looking at one this morning that I decided to write this article.
In 1982 myself and Keith where fooling around in the kitchen and we had begun emptying the dishwasher. Mum and dad owned a hotel at the time so the kitchen was part commercial , part family . I had taken out the cutlery and had it in my right hand with all the blades and fork ends facing up the way. Keith came up behind me and stated to play tickle me under my armpits. I screamed and jumped and my hand with the cutlery in it jumped up the way and a steak knife went up my nose and literally cut my nose end about 1 cm from the nostril up the way . I didn’t realise it as my nose just poured with blood . When I went to wipe it a little later after it had stopped bleeding , I thought it was dried blood. To my horror it was actually my skin and my nose peeled back ! . I had to go to A & E and have it stuck and put back together but to this day it is still very visible if you know where to look.
A few years before then I was in the shower and on the way back to my bedroom Keith chased me and I had a sliding door on my bedroom but it had nothing to run on just the carpet , so the edge of the sliding bit was visible. Never normally an issue until that night, as he chased me I ran screaming and shut the door in a hurry. So much of a hurry I left my toe in the way and it got nearly sliced off….that was a mess ! Blood everywhere and my toe dangling in space. A & E again and this time 8 stitches and a “Lucky for you it didn’t slice off completely” ! I can still see that scar ! These are scars but also amazing reminders of the times I spent with Keith and how much he made me laugh and filled my days with joy.
I also have mental scars and a scar across my heart that will never heal and is only visible to me from the deaths of my loved ones and the heartache Keith’s passing caused. But I wear these scars with pride because they make me who I am today , they have formed part of my journey .
In Japan they believe in fixing broken pots etc with gold glue and paint to highlight the break to show how strong the pot is and the trials it has gone too in order to survive,
There is a fabulous article on it here ….that explains this ancient art.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/326qTYw26156P9k92v8zr3C/broken-a-pot-copy-the-japanese-and-fix-it-with-gold
Someone very much in the public eye who has drawn huge attention to living with scars is Katie Piper
She has taken her scars and shown everyone worldwide that its ok to have these scars . She is currently touring the Uk with her one woman show letting others know the importance of body confidence despite our scars and how it is possible to push through these and learn how strong we are to survive. She is truly inspirational in every way .
I appreciate some scars can leave a very long term reminder on how they arrived, particularly internal , mental ones. But you can be proud of how far you have come and use this scar to heal you and make you stronger. !!!! After all you have survived and are still here to tell the tale. Why not make it a good tale and show the world just what you’re made of ? Perhaps you have scars from surgery , or giving birth, or an accident or mental scars from your past ? How ever they got there let them be a reminder of a positive place and not something to hide away from. Own it ! Remember just how far you have come and perhaps let this be the very beginning
YOU GOT THIS ! SCARS AND ALL ………..
