Markings Of A Warrior

We all have scars. Some are physical, some emotional and some mental. Some scars remind us of bad times in our lives such as a traumatic experience, an accident or an injury. Some we bear with pride, knowing what they represent, the lessons they perhaps taught. Why is it that most people in this day and age see them as some sort of imperfection, something that needs to be covered or erased? Once upon a time, the scars we held were like a badge of honor. They proved our strength, our courage and our convictions. They showed the sacrifices we were willing to make. In my opinion, scars are beautiful no matter how a person has acquired them because every scar has a story to tell and it is those stories that really impress upon the world what we have really survived to be where we are.

There are the physical scars which when looking upon them give me an instantaneous memory of the events that caused them. I have one above my eyebrow where I was hit in the head with a 2 x 4 by an abusive partner. There is the one above my upper lip, small and thin now with the time that has passed, it tells the story of when I thought I was being oh so sneaky and tried to "borrow" my older brother's jeans and was rewarded by his dog protecting his property and biting me....I still laugh about that particular lesson to this day! There is the cigarette burn on my chest, another mark of abuse from my past and then there is the tiny little scar on my toe, from when my older sister, may she rest in peace,  had to get into the bathroom very quickly and my toe got hit with the bent corner of a vent cover in the process. The stretchmarks I have from carrying the lives of my children are yet more physical scars of remembrance for me as are the scars that took the  ability to have anymore children away from me out of medical necessity.

Then there are the scars that no one can see. The scars of our minds, hearts and sometimes our very souls. The ones that build our courage, our determination, our very character and behaviors. These are the ones that show us what we are truly made of, what we can overcome, rise above and survive. They are the reminders to us of the dark roads we take, the malignant people we have encountered, the dire circumstances we have found ourselves in and the lessons we have had to learn the hard way. I have many of these as well, as I am sure we all do. I carry scars from being brutally, violently raped as a child, scars from being abused verbally, physically, emotionally and mentally by a man I thought loved me. There are scars from being teased or being made the outcast during my teenage years and scars from loosing friends and gaining uncalled for enemies. I carry with me the  scars from the deaths of loved ones like the loss of my sister and my mom and the scars made from all the mistakes I feel I have made.

I have many scars which come in many forms and I wear every single one of them with pride for they are the story of my life and what I have made it through to get where I am standing. I am a survivor, a fighter and a warrior...and my beautiful scars are the markings that prove to myself and the world that I have made it through many battles and  I will continue to survive, to fight and to overcome everything I am faced with in my own stubborn, fierce way.