.
Like you, I have my share of scars. I’ve been fortunate enough in all my
adventures to still have all ten fingers and toes, so I’m doing okay. I’m going to pick my left leg out as an
example and focus only on the area below my knee and above the ankle. I have 4 very visible scars and three of them
have happened while geocaching.
The oldest I received in an injury about 50 years ago and it
is about 2 inches long and looks like a knife wound. I haven’t recalled what caused it in so long,
that the memory is lost. The most recent
happened this past year when I was stung by a ground hornet in Pedernales Falls State Park. It happened on October 24th and
appears now as a dime-size brown spot. I
imagine it will remain that way, just like the spider bite above it.
I got that one 3 years ago, also while geocaching. The hornet sting is a ditto of it. Right at the top of my calf is a 3 inch long
slice scar I got while geocaching in palmetto plants over close to Beaumont. Did you know that stuff will slice you like a
hot knife in warm butter? It will.
None of these have left a mental scar on me though and
that’s a good thing. The dang hornet is
one I don’t want to repeat, but I haven’t lost any sleep over it. My friend Larry Houston is fond of repeating
my quote about wearing shorts when in the woods, “If the British can conquer
the whole world in shorts, I can go geocaching in them.” He is a long pant advocate when stomping
through grass that is often over our heads..
“Well, it’s danged hot here on the Gulf Coast of Texas” I am
fond of retorting, but I imagine my legs look more beat-up than his. Now mind you, only an MMA fighter, spelunker,
BASE jumper, or bank robber goes into their activity wondering what it is going
to feel like if everything goes wrong. I
don’t. I prepare the best I can for my
activity and eliminate as many potentially dangerous obstacles in advance.
Then I begin my adventure.
Make a note here I am talking about driving on Garth Road at noon. Not really, but every one of us that gets
behind the wheel of a car needs to remember it might be our last normal day on
earth. As a side note, nearly every day
I watch someone run through a red light to save one meaningless minute of
travel time.
Your scars and mine define who we are and where we’ve been. They are a roadmap of our adventures, albeit
painful ones. I have one between my eyes
by my nose where I ran headlong into an aquarium in the dark when I was in
Junior High. It opened me up like a machete
on a can of Spam. I looked like Dr.
Frankenstein’s monster. Man, I still
remember the impact. I don’t think a
ball bat to the head would hurt any more than that did.
These physical scars prepare us for the worst kind of
injuries life will bring – the emotional kind.
As bad as the physical wounds are, they often pale to what life drops on
our noggin. Just like the hornet and
spider injuries, we must pick ourselves up and go on. No one can do it for us. Only time can heal both types of injuries, but
rest assured, the scars will remain.
This week I had a dear lady drop off a couple of computers
for me to repair and in the course of chatting, she revealed she had lost her
boyfriend 2 months ago and in a moment of sympathy, I blurted, “Why, you are still
wounded.” Both of us began to cry, as I
too have experienced loss. The hurt is
deep, real deep. She apologized and I
then told her my own story.
What I told her is the deepest truth. Although I had suffered loss, it was not the
same as hers and I couldn’t rightly tell her I know what she is going
through. No one can at a time like
this. I did however tell her that as
time passed, it would get better, but only if she worked at it. “No one can pull you out of loss and
depression but you.” Mind you I am not saying
God won’t be there for you, because he will if you lean on him. I am talking about friends and family. Try as they might, only you can pull you back
to happiness.
She said “I think about him every minute of every day.” I told her one day she will be shocked to
realize 30 minutes has passed. “How long
does this take?”
I told her it was up to her, but don’t be surprised if it
doesn’t take a year or two, or three.
You see, the scar is there for life, but we can learn to bear it and continue
on. Our scars are what define us and if
we do not break, they make us stronger.
.
