How to tell that you're lucky

Society6

I’ve been lucky these past few years, I tell you.  I’ve made a regular habit of picking up scars from all sorts of places as souvenirs of my adventures.  And there have been a hell of a lot of adventures (wish there were more but I’m working on that).  

There are a series of diagonal lines marking the outside of my wrist, scrapes that have scarred over from where Ryon’s horseshoes and rubble have scratched my skin when I pick his hooves.  It gets re-aggravated when it’s muddy out and his feet become caked in concrete-thick mud and rock, the fresh scratches creating an interesting layered effect of scarred skin.  I also have a pencil eraser-sized mark right underneath my butt from where Lombardi, our barn’s grey Westphalian, bit me - through my pants - when I walked him up to the mounting block.  I am not the only human he has ever bitten on the butt but have the distinction of being the only person he’s left with a butt scar.

I have a divot on my ankle from God-knows-what next to the remainders of a nasty mosquito / spider bite.  These are recent, I think.  Did I get them from shallow diving into the swimming pool?  The bike ride on the trails?  Running into the coffee table?  Who knows.  There’s also a shard-shaped scar on my left knee, from a bad burn or abrasion, I don’t know.  It’s been there for the past month and I’m uncertain as to how it got there, when it appeared, or how long it’s going to hang around.  Other mystery scars include the triangular one on my elbow from opening a door (maybe?) or the one that looks like a claw mark on my right forearm.  Shrug.

Of course I still have the scar on my right shin from the ski accident in Beaver Creek a few years back.  It’s a remnant of one of the best ski days I’ve ever had, even with the accident and shredding a new pair of ski pants.  To say I should have gotten stitches is an understatement.  This one isn’t going anywhere and won’t be fading over time.

I’m not at all embarrassed of the scars and the road map they leave on my body.  If anything, they remind me to go out and Do More Awesome Things.  That my clumsiness has translated into only superficial marks on my skin is amazing and a forever reminder that I am so lucky.