That'll Leave a Mark
September 05, 2014
Recently I had blood drawn for a physical. My veins were
especially uncooperative that day, and for a while I sported a pair of bruises on my
forearms from the experience. They weren’t painful, but they were noticeable
(sadly, I wasn’t able to think up a more dashing story to go with them).
This got me thinking about bruises in general, and scars, too.
We can’t get far without collecting our share of bruises and
scars. Life, it seems, has a way of marking us, reminding us of both our
fragility and our resilience. We’re so fragile that a bump can break blood
vessels under the skin and cause blood to pool in the tissues, and we can
easily be cut or scraped, sometimes resulting in a scar.
But we’re also resilient. Bruises fade and heal, and scars,
in fact, are proof of healing, at least according to Wikipedia: “Any injury
does not become a scar until the wound has completely healed.”
Bruises and scars are badges of honor. We don’t get banged
up by staying safe at home in our comfort zones. If we’ve gotten a bruise or
scar, we were probably out doing something, learning something, experiencing everyday adventures.
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| I've had a few bruises from Tank |
Sometimes bruises and scars don’t show up in our outer
appearance. Sometimes the injury occurs internally, but leaves a mark nevertheless.
Those emotional wounds can be more painful than physical ones, but they
eventually heal, too, little by little becoming less painful. If we can
remember that healing is a process and an inevitable one at that, we’ll be able
to handle the initial pain better. We’ve all heard Ernest Hemingway’s words
from A Farewell to Arms: “The world breaks everyone and afterward many
are strong at the broken places.”
6 comments
Very thoughtful post Kathy. I think the ones no one sees are often the hardest to heal. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Hope all your have healed (and from Tank as well)! Hugs.
ReplyDeleteKathy, your writing is so beautiful & expresses so well ideas that help me live this sometimes fragile, sometimes hardy life...so, thank you...
ReplyDeleteI went through a number of outwardly visible injuries during certain years. But, outer, or inner, sometimes it takes learning HOW to heal & having faith that we are indeed meant to heal.
Debbie--Yes, it does seem like the unseen bruises are the slowest to heal. And, yes, I am all healed up, and (knock on wood) Tank hasn't given me a bruise in quite a while.
ReplyDeleteRita--Thank you for your kind comment. I think it takes a number of years, and a number of bumps and bruises, for us to realize that healing is a process and it WILL happen.
ReplyDeleteKathy, well, if this isn't a timely post for me to read! Thank you for explaining things so well. As far as outward scars, I have a few. One is a small one from falling off of my babysitters big bike that I was riding in 3rd grade. The other is a larger one under my arm, where I crawled under the coffee table when I was one and upset a pot of fresh coffee all over myself. Ouch!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for stopping by to see me, I appreciate you.
Kathy M.
Kathy--I imagine you're healing from some internal injuries right now. Take heart--healing does come. It's nice to have you back in the blog-o-verse.
ReplyDelete