I touch scars.
Some are physical.
Some emotional.
All are both.
And more.
Some are on the bodies of others.
Some are my own.
I do this personally and professionally.
Hands on skin and hearts.
Feeling and finding the way.
Some scars can be seen.
Others are invisible.
Both can be touched with presence, tenderness and care.
Scars all have their stories.
A history unspoken.
Layered into flesh.
A reminder.
A marking.
A place holder for what got us to here.
Some scars heal with ease.
Others fester, untended for a life time.
They are a place of vulnerability.
Where the tissues of ourselves have been broken, opened and exposed.
A sensitive reminder where others have left their imprint.
A permanent shaping of who we are.
We all have scars.
And when we meet, our scars are there too.
Sometimes they show up unexpected, in the flinching moments of unintentional harm.
Other times they are poked, prodded and evoked.
Each time I touch a scar I also touch what heals it.
I touch the unique weaving of collagen that rewove and repaired the wound.
I touch the layering of tissues re-formed into a new configuration.
A strengthening of fascia beyond what was there before.
Some scars have completed this journey of transformation.
The rupture and repair complete.
Others continue to find their way mending slowly with patience.
I long for a world where we notice and acknowledge our scars.
A world where their vulnerable exposure is welcome and they are tended with collective love.
A world where those who wounded, see how they held the knife.
A world where fragility melts away, and accountability and repair take its place.
A world where the mending weaves us all back together in regenerative and resilient ways.
Where in reciprocity we find a new formation that is stronger, more reliant, depth-full and potent than the wound itself.
Sometimes the scars overwhelm me and I want to walk away alone, to lick my own seeping wounds.
But to do so, misses the vulnerable edge necessary to find a new way forward.
That is why I will always have the courage to continue touching scars.
