Imperfect as we are, fall is our lot!
Some lessons stride in easy
Some others we must fall to pick.
We pick some as we walk
Others tackle us to the ground, thus we’re
Spared disaster that awaits the hasty.
Fall forces us to stop, to breathe deep
Look farther, see the true distance between
Reality and dreams, so we can adjust
To deal the unforeseen before they’re seen.
There is no shame in a fall that makes one wise
No dishonor in defeat that leaves us stronger.
Fall is nature’s way of grooming us
To learn essentials that would be missed
Saved from calamities that could kill
If not for those time outs on the ground.

Food For Thought: I doubt that there is anyone dead or alive, who has not made mistakes or encountered that painful hit that compels us to wake up and rethink. Fall is part of life. The dead are exempt from fall because learning is for the living. The other thing that makes fall detestable is the associated shame. It feels bad to hit the ground, to suffer loss, to be humiliated and proven contrary to what we would rather project. The shame sometimes can rob us of the courage to get up and try again, to step out and be seen by those we would rather hide from, to rise up to contend and disprove what the fall had already said about us. Truth remains: there is no shame in the pain that makes us stronger and wiser. If not for falls, some of us would not have risen to where we are today, which is far from where we were before it happened. Wisdom teaches us to absorb the lessons in the fall and release the sting of the shame which has the ability to limit future endeavors. Be wise, take the lessons in every fall and let the shame go, let the pain go – holding on to those does no one no good.

Scripture: I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread. Psalm 37: 25.

Prayer: Dear Lord, when I have to step aside, grant me the grace and humility to bear it, and to appreciate the invisible benefits of those times out, amen.