Motivational Monday - Scars

 We all have them, scars.  I am sure too, that when you look at yours, you can recall the moment, where, why, how it happened.  We can see physical scars, it's the emotional ones that we often time keep well hidden.

"Oh, that was when I reached in to close the gate and scratched my arm on the cattle fence ends."  "Oh, that was from when I was little and I climed up on the countertop to get a glass.  I fell and broke the glass in my hand."  Yes, when I look at those scars, I remember that moment it happend and carry around a reminder of what it left behind.  You know, I never climbed up on the counter again to get a glass.  I also didn't reach for the chain to the gate that same way.  The injury taught me and the scar reminds me.  

Emotional scars, no one can see, but we all have them.  "Half breed, Fatso Pocahontas, ugly house, poor, baby, spoiled" and other name callings.  "You're too big for that" or "don't you have any other outfits?" or a plethora of other phrases that not only hurt, but damage our self esteme and leave scars.  I'm 54 and thinking on some of these still hurt my feelings.

We took our little grand love to the park.  While there, a little boy struck up a conversation with me.  He says, "I'm too big for my age." (old hurts rise up).  "I'm only 6 and weigh 78 pounds," he says.  I quickly said, "well, you don't look too big to me, you look like a healthy size for your age."  It pained me to think that he was coming up to a complete stranger and making excuses for himself at 6!  Who told this little boy he was "too big?"  He wasn't!  He was tall for 6, true, but 78 pounds of muscle, not fat.  Well, what he is hearing will leave him with a scar.  I only hope what I said, which was true, provides a little healing.  Shame on whomever told him that!  

That, had my thinking about this post.  How can we let our scars motivate us.  Just like looking at my arm with the scar from the fence, I am reminded not to reach my hand in the same way.  How can we take our painful memories of emotional scars and use them to our advantage.  That would be more beneficial to us than to hold on to those old hurts.

I have been cleaning out my "stash" this summer.  I came across a tub of something that encapsulates my "decades" of this.  I could almost have cried, really.  I don't even know how I could adequately explain this, what it meant and how I felt.  Let's just say, that after a few days of thinking about it, I decided to take the lesson of it and change.  I started to, be depressed about it - the lack of my ability to turn it into what I envisioned.  That right there is the problem.  I hate to say, but I do have some awesome things I've hoarded with wonderful intentions.  I do have cool ideas too.  So when I looked in this tub, the items were not ruined, which was good, but, the "who, what, why" is long gone.  It made me sad to think I failed again.  I don't want to feel like that!  I don't!  So, after a few days of reflection, recognizing that as a "scar" on multiple levels, I made choice.  A choice to move on and forward.  Yep, it's a scar that I want to motivate me to be better.  

I know this was a rather personal post for a Motivational Monday.  However, my hopes is that you can think on some of your scars differently.   Try to look at them like lessons.  Use them to motivate you to be better.  I'm the first to admit, it will be hard and take time and effort to do, but I'm going try.  I hope you will too.  

Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.