FALLING DOWN

There is an art to falling down...it's called growth. The amount of gentleness and awareness with which we pick ourselves up,the lightness of the hand that brushes us off and the open willingness we engage to continue and move on to the next step, which may well be beyond our safe edge, into the mystery of being are all the considerations by which growth is measured.

When my heart aches for another's pain, when I do random acts of kindness without anyone knowing what I've done, when I step into and past my own physical pain to ease another's and when I hold a woman, or a man, as they cry the tears of their brokenness, I know I have fallen many times somewhere along the way and the scars on my knees and hands have healed.

When I look away from a small child in tears, or an old person in rags, or a handicapped man or woman who looks at me with pleading eyes and drool running from their mouth, I know I am in the process of falling and also know that I will have need of introspection and that I'll be struggling with forgiving myself.

When I let myself down by not letting myself play, or by procrastinating over an unpleasant task that will invariably be there tomorrow just as it's there today, or when I judge myself for not doing something better or forget an important date, I've fallen again. When I ruminate over the number of times I've fallen, I fall even further. All opportunities for growth, some more difficult than others, but every one a gift. Accept your gifts and grow with grace. Nemaste my friends.