I did a couple of posts awhile back about how we are all different, yet more alike than we realize. This reflection keeps coming up as I meet new people who have this unwanted club membership. We all have a story to tell. No one is immune to the trials and tribulations of life! We have battle scars, open wounds, heartbreak, tragedies, and loss. How we survive those things and still see beauty is one of the many wonders of the world. Before passing judgment on anyone, think about the pieces of a person you cannot see. This is not the same as looking at others through rose colored glasses. This is looking at someone through the literal masking tape that is holding them together.
When my daughter was in kindergarten, her teacher told me she would believe half of what my child says if I promised to believe half of what I heard. Makes sense for a five year old. Think about that comment and realize now how we only hear half a story and leave out details when speaking about our own story! Life is literally the telephone game all over again!! So many details are overlooked, misinterpreted, ignored, or unspoken. These are the details under the tape, the ones that hurt to talk about and would definitely change the story!! Be kind! We are all dealing with a different story!
My personal battle scars have left so much scar tissue, I am not sure I have regular tissue remaining. I need to know what these battle scars have provided. I have preached and preached over the last few decades (thanks to my mom’s influence) to find a positive from every, and I mean EVERY, situation. I try! I am also trying to help others through horrible situations so they may find or see some beauty through the cracks!
So, what makes me ‘me’ and you ‘you’? Many of the same things, yet so much more. I have faith and lean on it regularly! I am a mother and a wife. I am also a bereaved parent. Dig a little deeper, I have lost siblings, three to be exact, and at a fairly early start. I was 26 when I lost my dad and 30 when I lost my first sibling. Little did I know that dealing with those losses at an early age would be prep for losing a child who was only 24 years old. With my faith, I know there is a plan. I don’t always analyze the plan, but sometimes the dots just line up. Doesn’t mean I talk about those losses, even though they are a huge part of what makes me ‘me!’
Be kind. Know there is a big part of the story you don’t know, didn’t hear, or is covered in masking tape. Our kaleidoscope of life’s trials and tribulations taped together into a story with a beautiful underlining. We are who we are because of what we have been through and those who have crossed our path, been born into our lives, and are part of our roll of tape holding us together.
We are not in this world to be compared and charted. It is not a competition of battle scars and who survived ‘better’ if that should even be a thought! Remember the stitches and tape holding our lives together are entwined with each other. We are more alike than we are different and not all our rainbows have the colors in the same order.
For all those I have loved and lost, parents, siblings, and my son, I cry because they are gone, but I smile because they were here!! They made me “me!”
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