Last weekend, I went hiking and accidentally touched a spiky plant. “Aks!”
I pulled the splinter out of my finger and kept walking.
Later that night, while showering, I noticed a tiny black piece still stuck in my finger. I tried to remove it with a knife but couldn’t. So I asked my friend for help.
She brought a tweezer and a needle, and her children held a phone light while she operated. It turned into a family project. Even her husband joined in — but none of us succeeded. Instead, we ended up with a small black hole and a bit of blood. We decided to wrap it with a clean cloth, let it rest, and watch.
The next day, I searched online for home remedies: banana peel (its enzymes soften the skin), and white vinegar with water to draw out the intruder. My friend’s mother, a doctor, recommended salt.
So, for the next three days, my little finger went through what I jokingly called BVS therapy — banana peel, vinegar, and salt water. The pain subsided, the dead skin hardened, and the black dot disappeared.
“Is it out?” I asked.
My friend said it looked like it was healing well and suggested continuing the salt-water soak to prevent infection. “When the dead skin sheds,” she said, “it might pull the splinter out if it’s still there.”
This morning during meditation, I read The Gift of Shedding from Mark Nepo’s The Book of Awakening:
“ From the beginning, the key to renewal has been the casting off of old skin.
For human beings, dead skin takes many forms — a dead way of thinking, a dead way of seeing, a dead way of believing, a dead way of relating, a dead way of experiencing. ”
It struck me — sometimes, what we shed isn’t just old skin.
Sometimes, something unwanted gets in and gets stuck, like that tiny splinter in my finger. It takes faith, patience, and sometimes the help of others to let it go.
For me, what I’m shedding is insecurity — the self-doubt, overbending to please, or trying too hard to fit in.
The journey has begun. At times it’s painful, scary, and uncertain. Yet when I look back, what fills me most is gratitude — for the experience, for the learning, and for the support of others, which often shows up in different forms: collaboration, disagreements, feedback.
The journey continues. There will be ups and downs, but I believe it’s all for the greater good.
For each of us — individuals and organizations alike — to grow, to renew, to be whole and productive now and into the future, we must shed.
What will you shed off?