I’d like to say that everybody falls down sometimes… but I can’t.
I don’t know what goes on in “everybody” else’s life, much less what goes on in their heads. What I do know, is that I fall down, a lot. Sometimes I literally trip and fall flat on my face. That I can laugh about. Other times I may look like I am standing to you, but in my head and my heart, I am on the ground, barely crawling, gasping for air. At these times, laughter is the furthest thing from my mind. Survival is the only thing I can summon the strength to fight for.
Apparently, when I am on the ground, it is easy to kick myself for being a failure, being weak, being wrong, or a hundred other things on the long list of things I could have messed up. When I am on the ground is when I am at my weakest and cannot defend myself. When I am on the ground is also when it hurts the most. When I am on the ground I don’t believe that there is anyone else who will defend me either.
And yet, at some point, somehow, I am able to get up off the ground. Sometimes, I have to do it for myself. Sometimes, I am surprised to find there is someone there to give me a helping hand, lifting me back up to my feet. Either way, the one thing that I know for sure is that I will get back up again. Maybe I’ll be scraped up and bruised, but no matter how wobbly I am, I will get back up.
Now you know why today’s image means so much to me. This image reminds me that not only will we get back up again, but that it is our choice how we get back up and what happens next. Maybe we’ve been setting our sights too low. Perhaps just getting back up isn’t enough anymore. Maybe the next time we fall down, we need to do whatever it takes to be sure that when we get back up, we rise like the whole damn fire!
Allison Jeffereys
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