Life is Marvelous

Life is marvelous in it's wonders!  To a botanist, this is probably explainable through science, as the heartwood, missing in the photo, is dead once it fully forms.  So, having the tree split open and continue to thrive is no big deal.  For average people like me, I only know that, somehow, this tree has managed to live without a heart and a long opened scar running up the trunk.

 

Everything that gives the tree life, makes it beautiful, and provides for other life around it, takes place on the periphery of the heartwood.  The scar may look ravaging, but it does not define the life of the tree or the outer beauty and life giving capabilities it still possesses.  Will it live as long as a tree without the scar?  Probably not, but while it does it will continue to be a vital part of life around it.

 

Isn't this true for us as well?  When we see a soldier with massive burn scars, missing limbs, wheelchair bound, do we see the loving husband and father, the beloved son, the hero of our country?  Or, do we see a horror to be turned away from?

 

And what of the scars we cannot see?  The psychological scars inflicted by war, or by the physical damage they live with for the rest of their lives?

 

There are people all around us that suffer from one malady or another, whether soldier or civilian, young or old.  How do we try to handle what they have to handle, and should we even care?

 

Scars do not define who we are.  Scars are proof of life, not proof of death.  To me it is proof of the resiliency of the human body, and spirit, to overcome adversity.

 

Ask yourself how you react to the scars of someone you see, or know personally.  Do you really take it in stride?  Do you turn your head so as not to deal with it?  Does it hurt your heart to even think of trying?  Imagine how they feel.

 

Life is marvelous in it's wonders!  The multiple amputee's girlfriend carrying him across a river on her back, and then proving her love in marriage.  The retiree who takes it upon himself to push a paralyzed student around to finish high school and then throughout college, while taking notes to ensure he graduates, and being awarded an honorary degree from the college.  The father without arms hugging the small child that is hugging him back, like there is nothing wrong with daddy.  There is nothing wrong with daddy.  If anything, his love is stronger.

 

We go out of our way to marvel at the wonders of nature.  Aren't there wonders of nature surrounding us?

 

Next time you have the chance to meet someone you might normally turn away from, try treating them like everyone else. 

 

They are.  I think they would like us to acknowledge it, every now and then.