Our Scars Don’t Define Us, They Empower Us

My sunglasses are essential. I keep better track of them than my cell phone. I have a pair I wear daily and a backup pair I keep in my car.

If you come to Florida, you’ll find sunglasses for sale everywhere. They’re a necessity. Our light is bright! They have glasses that’ll make everything look yellow, pink, or so dark you’ll end up squinting from lack of light.

It occurred to me that we all have our own sunglasses through which we see the world. As we go throughout our day, we view the circumstances of our lives through a lens of positivity or darkness. Most people change glasses according to the circumstance or the day. Then there are some who stick to only one pair, light or dark.

It seems to me those are the most dangerous because too much light or too much darkness inhibits growth. We need a mixture of both. When something happens, and we view it through a dark lens, we’re hurting. We’re feeling. Our instinct may be to suddenly put on a new pair of glasses, ignore the darkness, and flood ourselves with light. But then nothing is learned except avoidance. Nonacceptance. And whatever happened to us sits inside, festering, affecting our behavior and eventually our health.

The people who keep the dark glasses on have experienced pain and play it on a never-ending loop in their mind. It becomes part of them, who they are, it isn’t until they understand they are capable of taking off their lenses that they will begin to heal. The world through their eyes is dark. It affects everything they do. It affects the people around them.

When things happen to us that cause us pain, first we must view it through the dark lens. We must feel it, acknowledge it. It may take a day; it may take months. It is during this dark time that we are learning and growing if we choose to. It is the dark times that give us strength. If we’re willing to face our pain, face our fears, and then remove our dark shades suddenly we’ll see with a clearer vision. We may have scars, but our scars don’t define us, they empower us.

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” Jane Goodall