I have a 3 inch scar on my arm - a reminder of an 'in situ
melanoma' removed four years ago. A freckle that changed my life -
for the better. In that scar is my awakening to life. In that
experience I faced my fear of death and discovered - like all things
in life - my delusion that I somehow can control it. In learning to
release that delusion, I found great inner peace and a whole new
world - one full of creativity, connectedness, and kindness. The
world was the same, but my relationship with it shifted. I saw the
many scars we all carry- the hazards, obstacles, and barriers that
keep us trying desperately to control the world around us. My motto
is now, Reflect, Don't Direct. It helps me step back to listen a bit
more rather than talk.
Every scar tells a story and our scars, both internal and external,
help us discover life, if we are willing to listen. They may be big
or small but in each one, a little bit of truth is realized. Even
the scars of the earth (eg. pollution, destruction of rain forests)
reveal to us the delusion of thinking we control the planet, rather
than to see how deeply interdependent we are with one another and the
earth. As we age, our memories contain scars of survival,
experiences that create wisdom with age. Wisdom to me is the
exuberance of youth viewed through the landscape of life. Scars are
the evidence we carry reflecting that landscape. It is up to us to
study our scars, to discover their source, to learn from them and to
share them. For sharing is a key to healing, by seeing the world from
another's perspective. And through such sharing, one discovers the
repetitiveness of our delusions, generation after generation,
stranger to stranger, child to adult to child again. And that, in
itself, is life, a wonderous and rather humorous adventure of
discovery. When the false view of your self as independent from
others and the earth is realized and scars can be seen from that
perspective, the world is a much more beautiful place.