The Soul Made of Scars
10/9/25 ©Rivka Edery. www.rivkaedery.com
Inside, I was broken into pieces,
shattered by a pain from long ago.
A hurt child was inside me, holding a broken doll,
and an angry teen was swallowing screams.
To stop the hurt, parts of me became guards,
standing by my heart saying, You will not break again!
Other parts were wild, trying to numb the pain,
to burn away the bad memories with noise and fire.
Then, the true Me appeared, quiet and kind.
Self didn't come to fight, but to heal.
A confusion to tired, weary, and broken hearts of parts long forgotten
Self-held a gentle light and whispered to all their pain,
“Show me everywhere you are hurting”, and I will patiently witness
And all the old sadness came tumbling out, like orphans held for the first time
The lost parts cried, We shattered when we were obliterated into our dungeons
when the love we needed turned to cruel, cold silence.
Self gently stroked them all, in a gentle hug that felt like Angel’s Love
I cannot undo these wounds, nor quickly stitch them up
For Healing is slow, without an agenda, order or control,
It is like sunlight touching a scar.
Love must trace every single crack
until the aching finally feels heard and held
Slowly, I built a home inside myself.
The broken pieces were not thrown away,
but remade into something new and beautiful.
The sad child learned to play again,
the angry voice learned how to sing a song.
Grief, the artist, took my broken parts
and made them into a stained-glass window.
Now the light shines through the lines where I was broken,
painting my soul with peace.
I am all of it: the breaking, the fire, and the healing.
Maybe like you, my soul is whole, with all her scars,
each fracture a faithful vein
carrying the wild river of who I am in this lifetime
My beautiful Self dancing with my Soul
Both flow fierce and free, a luminous duo
I sense them today, and take time to straighten my crown
Gathering close to me, all my lost ones, whispering,
We are the map, the mend, the endless dawn.
