Scars
"We can't stop the bleeding…"
"It's too deep."
When you get this phone call as a parent, your heart drops...
And then you spring into action.
We rushed to my daughter's school,
And whisked her to the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania Emergency Room.
I recently told you that my youngest, Cecilia, is in her "go fast, don't die" phase—
Well… going fast finally got her good.
No scooter was involved this time—
Just her feet… faster than a Ferrari.
She booked, tripped, fell,
And split her chin wide open.
The wound looked like an early Halloween special FX makeup—
Like a second mouth on her chin.
The stellar staff at CHOP stopped the bleeding immediately,
And they gave Cecilia her first stitches—
Six, to be exact.
Stitches were a new experience for her, so, understandably, she had questions.
"Will I have these stitches forever, Daddy?" she asked.
"No, Cecilia, they'll fall out in a few days, and you'll just have a scar," I replied.
"A scar? What's a scar?" she shot back.
The ER doctor spun around in her chair to answer this,
But then she saw the look in my eyes, smiled, and spun back around.
"A scar is a story," I said.
I noticed the ER doctor tilt her head, interested, as she continued to listen while staring at her computer screen.
"A scar is a story of hurting and healing.
Once the stitches fall out, you'll have a small mark on your chin.
The mark will be your reminder of this story."
~
I thought a lot about my scars for the rest of the weekend.
My visible ones, of which I have a few,
And my invisible ones, of which I have many.
I do not doubt that you have them too, Joey.
Think about yours—
What stories are you telling yourself about your scars?
Are you the victor in your story? Are you the victim?
Or are you both?
Do you center your story on your hurting… or your healing?
In our Community and life, we talk a lot about limits,
And, most often, these limits are simply the stories we tell ourselves—
About our scars.
This week, do not just use your scars as a reminder of your hurt.
Use them to tell your story of triumph through trauma—
Especially when you are telling this story to yourself.
So here's to our scars—
May we continue the hard work of turning our hurt into healing and hustle.
Joey
