In life as we go through the years of our life, we can not help but go through times when it feels like we have fallen. My buddy Confucius said once many many years ago “ Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.”
I always liked this quote because I personally have fallen more than I care to imagine.

And I gotta tell ya, I think it is really hard to get back up again. For me the rise is slow usually, it is accompanied by apprehension. Because I personally have found the my “falls” in life have all been life changing events. I am sure you can relate.

Life is full of slips, when we can catch ourselves before it turns into a fall. But sometimes ( for me more often than not) the proverbial carpet was ripped out from under me, so I had no warning I was aware of.. just boom, splat, and dang that hurt.

The loss of a place of employment, a major kick in the butt, carpet puller outer,  if you ask me. See when I work, I give it my all and than some. I always have. So in my past, when my employer decided for whatever reason to close or merge and all of the sudden the place I had given everything I had to was now saying adios – well it took  me and threw  me on the ground, stomped on me and than tied the sock top around my head. It is hard to get back up after that happens. For me,I felt like I lost a part of me. I think about all the unemployed and what they must be feeling. I remember the couple of times I have been looking for a job because my place quit on me.  But eventually , after some poor me moments, some what the heck will I do moments, some yanking the sock down from around my head moments, I found small paths to take, each one led me somewhere else. I felt fortunate to find work each time.

The loss of a friend, not necessarily by death, maybe because of something that happened, maybe because one of you changed, maybe because of one moving away. Maybe because the peers did not like me and ended up convincing my ”  friend “ I was not worthy of their friendship. That is a double kick, like being pushed down so far you are in the toe of the sock…. because one part is feeling the loss and another part is feeling like a fool for believing this person was ever a friend. For  friend would not do that.

The loss of a parent, that is a fall in life that for me took a very very long time to stand back up from. My understanding death ( to what ever level one can understand death), did not help the gut wrenching feeling the moment you hear they have died. It brings on such emotions, emotions I could not stop. It was like the fall knocked me down so hard that my head was not just  covered with my sock top, nope this fall made a hole in the ground.. a deep hole….. . It was dark, frightening, lonely.

How about the loss of a marriage. Yeah that is a big one. At least for me it was huge. See not always do both parties agree the marriage is not meant to be. So the one who is hit by this proverbial brick, well it catches you just right and you fall… bad! Yeah that was a number of months of brushing off my wounds, and trying to get those darn sock tops down enough to see anything in the light again.

So personally I must be filed with “greatest glory” because somehow, somewhere I have picked myself up  by the sock tops, and somehow found a way to move one foot in front of the other. These times of falling down, I guess can be looked at as opportunities to get up and be filled with more greatest glory.

It is weird though, as I was walking in tonight, I was thinking about falls, literal falls.. there was a slight coating of ice, and I try like heck to avoid an encounter with my butt and the ground… (  just a personal goal I have !)well that got me thinking about the “falls” of life’s journey we each go through.People December 2010 074 I know from work, people I know from blogging, people I have run across from facebook…some are in the fall, some have pulled the sock top down, some are sitting there trying to figure out how to get up….all these people came to me as I looked at the ice. And for a moment I sent a prayer for them. For, as I age, I  feel the remnants of falls from the past, and I know there are more falls in the future, and for all those people in different phases of a fall.. here is hope each person can find the light.

So my wish is that if you are in a dark moment, try to pry the sock top down, look for a glimmer of light, even if it is far away.

Be careful out there…. learn from your let downs… cherish your recoveries.                 Love Mrs Justa alias Cindy