Scars are cool…

I didn’t used to think scars were cool, when I was a hand model. It’s hard to get work with stitch holes in a knuckle, or big gash of days gone by. So off to another career path, because I have the hands of a lumberjack, not a hand model (to all of my lumberjack friends - please do not be offended).

We all have scars…

We all learn from our scars, just like our failures...

Scars prove you lived through things. 

I have a really good one from toe surgery about 6 months ago. Posted about it in December. It was a very weird and painful experience. If you read about it, you would have a better picture, but I made it through and I healed up. I made it through.

Scars remind you that pain is in the past. 

I have a scar from falling on my knee from falling on it as a child. It doesn’t bother me and it’s pretty faded - it was pain in the past, not now. It doesn’t have an impact anymore. It hurt at the time and I didn’t like the pain, but the scar has faded and the past is over.

Scars cause us not to make the same mistakes twice.

I have one from when a pingpong table collapsed on my hand. You can read about that one here. I was in ninth grade, and I learned that there are right ways and wrong ways to cary a folded pingpong table.

I have one from when I dropped a plate off my fridge and onto my foot. It broke on the way down and a dagger piece went directly in to my foot. I could go on with some more gory details, but I want you to read the rest. Don’t put your plate on top of the fridge and open the fridge door.

Scars can give us good memories too. 

It means you had the opportunity to try some things in life. 

I have a scar on my pinky finger - it’s not big and it wasn’t a deep cut, but it always brings back a good memory. When I was a Principal and teaching, I was asked to ride in a soap box car, with one of my students, Jason. He built the wooden car and had a rope for the steering (not a great plan, but I agreed to jump in with him). We were motivated and had a plan to win, as we went down a fairly steep hill from our church to to the school building - about 300 yards). 

We got up to speed, by me pushing and then jumping into he car. I jumped in and we were rolling pretty quickly, then we had to steer - that was not working and we wobbled around the long paved driveway/road and then we went for a flip and roll. We bumped around and down the hill and then out of our car. I bounced off of him and then hit the pavement, pinky first, then elbow, then hip, leg, back, hip, legs, back, arm, then all over again, several times.

It hurt then, but it’s a good memory now, because about 10 years later, in his mid-20’s, Jason was murdered in a robbery at the business he worked at. It’s sad, but I have the soapbox car memory forever. That is a fond scar.

Sorry to end with a sad story, but scars all have memories attached the we can use.

Lessons Learned: Don’t let your scars hold you back. The scars of life only help us get better, just like failures take us to the next step.

Thoughts: Do you have a cool memory from a scar?

#failalot