I always thought scars were a constant reminder of “what happened,” but since I have a couple now, I realize that’s not the case. Most of my “scars” are on the inside, so I never really thought about them as being reminders. Music, smells, household chores, thoughts usually trigger me back to a painful past, but not so much scars.

A little while back, I fell at my sons’ football practice and ended up in the emergency room. I have an irritating looking scar on my foot and my knee. At times, after standing for a while, the one on my foot hurts. Looking at it and feeling it, both, don’t seem to take me back to the moment of trauma; something else does.

When I fell, it happened at Sunshine Park in La Mesa. That’s where my oldest son coaches my younger son’s flag football practices and games. Whenever I go there, I walk down the same slope where I fell, I’m instantly more aware of my balance, my footing, my every step, to make sure I don’t fall again. It’s being on the same path that takes me back, not the scars.

Do scars take YOU back to the moment they happened, or are you reminded when you walk down a familiar path?

There’s a difference between being reminded and remembering: being reminded takes you back (unwillingly) to a moment in time, where the pain was real; remembering is willingly going back to the scene.

For me, my scars seem to prove what happened but don’t take me back to the actual fall.

Anyway, I found this all to be interesting and have been wanting to write about it but just waited for God’s timing. I’m interested to hear how other people’s (visual) scars affect them.