Scarred and Scared 8/3/07

Scarred and Scared

I'm a klutz. No. Seriously. I have scars to prove it. These on my right knuckle, well, that was from a bicycle race that I lost. I was on a borrowed bike and my cousin failed to mention that the rear brakes didn't work. When I tried to stop the front brakes engaged and I flew over the handlebars and slid for 6 feet. On asphalt. In a tube top. At the age of 12. I was devastated to learn that I wouldn't be able to wear my training bra until my chest healed. Oh...Yeah...I scraped everything that I had been training, off. Lesson learned: Ask the important questions. Example: "Do the brakes work?"

Left hand, this scar by my thumb? Oh that was from baking cookies and my two year old went to touch the hot pan....in smacking her hand away from the heat...I hit the top of the oven with my own hand. Lesson learned: Sometimes in saving someone else, you can get hurt yourself. Its always worth trying.

The ones on my knees are from roller skating and falling various places in my life. It seems I've fallen every where I have ever been in my life. The lesson here is simple. Watch where you are going, it hurts when you fall, but the journey can be fun.

The internal scars are a little tougher to see. This one? on my heart. That was when I overheard my parents talking in the kitchen. I was 17 and "grown up". Or so I thought. I heard the words "separation" and "divorce". My parents never knew that the air vent that leads to the kitchen...also went through my room. I learned all kinds of stuff that way. Lesson learned: parents are people who are just doing the best they can and you never really are "grown up".

Oh yes, there are various pieces of my spirit missing. That sounds strange, I know. But I really do believe we give pieces of our spirt or parts of ourselves to the people we love and care for. Those people benefit from them when they need them and don't even realize it is there when they don't. The lesson here?

Care anyway, Love anyway. Someone needs you.