I had a dumb accident two weeks ago, browning a chicken in a 450 degree oven; my wrist touched the heating element and…well…it was a bad, bad burn. I iced, covered it with antibiotic cream, non stick bandages, picturing the scar that would come. Day after day I slathered it with ointment, kept it covered, protected, so protected. 10 days passed, it wasn't healing. My pharmacist looked at it: "You have to take the bandage off, Joan. It needs air to heal." I was afraid to do that, afraid it would get wounded again somehow, but I took the bandage off and in one day the scab formed, the redness reduced. Each day it's gotten better. And I thought of the hurts we get in this world, physical and otherwise — sometimes we overdo the medicine and the bandaging, we don't want the air to get anywhere near the injury, but getting out there again can be the best thing for that. That's when the real healing begins.