Tracing Life

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius

When I was a little boy, I loved to sit on my dad’s lap when he got home from work. We’d talk, watch television together or I’d sit while he read the paper after a long day.

Regardless of what we were doing, I often traced the veins on the top of his hands with my fingers, too.

Because he was an athlete in school and served in the military, Dad had strong hands with protruding veins. Sitting with him, held in that embrace, I always felt safe, protected, secure, loved.

One particular and peculiar concern of mine after being burned as a child was related to my acute awareness of the brokenness of my hands. All of my fingers were amputated; my hands were left with thick, red scarring. I knew the experience I relished with my dad would never be one my future children could have with me.

I had not thought about that memory or childhood concern in years. But a recent experience rekindled those thoughts.

My youngest child, Grace, just four, was sitting on my lap. As she sat on my lap her little index finger began tracing me. No, she wasn’t tracing veins, but scars.

Grace started focusing on one in particular. She kept going around and around. It felt like she was making a little circle.

Then she said, “Out of all of them, I love this one the most. It looks just like a heart. You’re lucky, Daddy.”

I looked down at her finger, then at the scar.

And for the first time I noticed this specific scar on my right arm. Sometimes things become such a part of us, we don’t realize they are there. But alas, there, on my right arm – where a collection of scars came together as one – was the unmistakable shape of a heart.

I looked away from it, back at her, and acknowledged, “You’re right, Grace. I sure am lucky.”

My friends, Grace thinks I am lucky because I have scars that cover my body and one that actually forms the shape of a heart on my arm.

But the real reason I’m fortunate is that, not only do I have the wholesome vision of children in my life to call out the beauty in my scars, but I have finally grown to accept and celebrate the beauty of them myself.

In life, it’s easy to see wrinkles, challenges, difficulties, and scars as ugly. It’s common to consider them reminders of all we went through in the past and wish we didn’t have to endure in the present.

Today, my friends, I challenge you to choose to see them through a different lens. Today, be aware of where you’ve been, grateful for where you are, and convinced that the best is yet to come. <Tweet this> | <Share on Facebook>

We are lucky.

For everything has beauty. And everyone who wishes can choose to see it.

This is your day. Live Inspired.

What is something that you see beauty in today? Please share it in the comments below.