These Scars Remind Me My Past Is Real

Most girls don't like these perminent little marks on their bodies.  They buy creams, they have surgery, anything to remove the remains of previous wounds. 

I'm not most girls; I love my scars.

When I lay in the bathtub and look at my body, I see many markings of what has been, and each one tells a story about me.  I love tracing them with my fingers and remembering what it was in life that left that long pinkish-white mark behind as a souvenier.  It is my belief that the reason some scars never fade is because we were meant to always remember the lesson we learned from it, or those feelings we felt when it happened.

There are multiple scars along the knuckles of both my hands, and I wear them proudly as I remember the teenage angst that led me to the rough fabric wrapped around a punching bag at my parents house.  Most say it wasn't smart to not wear gloves, but besides the obvious impact of releasing my frustration on that heavy bag, in that moment the pain brought me clarity.  Call me a massochist, but as my skin tore against the canvas, the negativity was bled out of me and I felt better.

My upper-right leg has streaks of scars running down it, when I look at them I remember the trip to Lake Powell last summer and how much fun I had.  The pain from falling on the boat and seriously injuring my leg is nothing but a blip in a very pleasant memory.  

My thumb has a scar I earned as a small child when I fell in my great grandmother's basement and caught myself on a wall which had chicken wire on it.  It was nothing, but those grandparents are gone now, and the thin white scar reminds me of them when I look at it.

Even the most recent one I gained on my knee has a purpose, even if the only thing I learned from it was to make sure I close my dresser drawers at night! 

I love my scars, and I think they're beautiful and full of life.

However... Emotional scars are different story for a different day.

This glimpse into my inner psyche, brought to you by Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop.  Head on over and see what everyone else has to say...