From Healing Comes Scar Tissue, But At Least It's Skin
Healing is a concept that is often romanticised. Dreaming of complete and total recovery without anything remaining of the original hurt and trauma.
This is too idealistic (and I say that as someone who is an idealist). Too perfect to be truly human.
I think the truth is more like scar tissue.
We learn to repair the inner wounds to our spirit and emotions, and there will always be the spiritual and emotional scar tissue. This is the natural way of life, the natural way of healing.
We cannot undo what has been done, and we cannot erase it from our minds, our bodies or our hearts. We cannot change what we have experienced in childhood or relationships, through illness, pain or loss. We can only grow with it, and grow from it.
I love looking at trees, because their scars are so visible, their vulnerability so tangible, and yet they grow like giants.
There are no two trees the same. It fascinates me how they each grow in such unique ways.
Some with branches that have fallen, some have been cut back. Others that lean sideways with the blowing wind.
Their beauty resides in these differences, in these adaptations to their own experiences.
life in the eye of the Sphinx by marco monetti
Scar tissue is not the same smooth experience or the same smooth skin as one has if one has not been touched by the tragedy, trauma or wounding.
It may feel rough or tender to the touch, and it may lack the same vital blood and nerve supply that feeds non-damaged tissue.
The roughness may be the knowing that every time something awakens that place in your heart, there is a little resistance that you have to overcome. A little more struggle perhaps.
The tenderness may be the delicate reminder of how vivid and strong those experiences were, and how they have shaped your outlook on the world.
Yet, we can be thankful that the healing does happen, and at least it is scar tissue.
That the scar tissue offers protection from outer forces, that there is a sense of feeling whole and held by your own intricate network of emotional and spiritual intelligence.
Those scars remain as a reminder of the experiences that shaped who you are are and who you are becoming.
And they serve to sustain your inner spirit because you can recognise in yourself the transformative repair work you have done so that they are no longer wounds.
In these scars I see beauty. Take pride in your own healing journey and honour your amazing scar tissue.
Heal your inner wounds with bryony@creativesoultherapies.com