Every one of us has that parent, or friend, or even at some point, were that kid, you know? That little kid, who loves to play, going outside, laugh, jump, smile, and that at some point falls and starts crying… And it hurts to see that little being, crying the hell out of him, doesn’t it? Tasting that knew experience: Pain…
Living the fall
To avoid that bad feeling of hearing a kid cry, what usually the parents do? Get him up, pass the hand on the scratch, tell him is gonna be okay, and start running with and above him, to prevent further falls, and never do the one most important thing… Teach him how to get up, confront that new experience and grow resistant to it!
You can see clearly when the parents of a kid use these different types of approaches. A friend of mine has a son and educated him with these second approach, when is playing with other kids, and his son falls, the next moment his already getting up, shaking is hands and starting to run again, all by himself. And how the other kids behave? Well, they fall and start crying… Pretty lame, I know.
Well… Actually, lame, are all the grown-ups who still do, exactly, the same!
I know, pretty rough and insulting, sorry about it, reader.
Will we stop falling?
But let’s think a little bit about it. And do some time travel: when did you stop falling? More, when did any of us stop falling? Most people can barely remember, right? It could have been ages ago, or even last week, but they all have grown and get used to it, and at some point in their lives, even stopped giving it importance. But that doesn’t mean they stopped falling, it just means that now, they know the experience, the feeling and most importantly, how to pass through it!
And apply this principle to our lives, how many people have hard, tough or even painful experiences, and instead of learning how to deal with them, just wanna be carried away from those! It’s a terrifying life!
These imply two sides:
One is that when you fall you need to have the mindset to learn from the experience and not get carried by your feelings and pain (or just any other feeling).
And second, and most importantly, to learn, you need to fall! Of course, you can see others fall, but you will never fully understand something if you don’t pass through it (disclaimer: I’m not telling you to eat gravel, you can fall in other ways and places).
Personally, now that I’m between my 20’s and 30’s, is the perfect time to fall! I’m not saying that I have never fallen before, or that would stop falling after it. It’s just that, now it’s the best time to force me to eat grass… It’s a transition phase, I have some responsibilities, but for example, I don’t have a family to take care of or bills to pay every month. I can fall and not make deep wounds in me, or the ones around me.
“…you, will fall!”
But that just my opinion and situation. Most important than this: remember, down the road, you will fall! Instead of just worrying about relieving the pain and wishing you were not in that situation, learn how to get up, get at least a bit used to that feeling, so when you fall again it will be less heartful than the time before, and when you fall a third, it will be even less heartful, and so on, until that experience is no more the seven head serpent that it was. There is no true age to fall, and there is not a true fall, what really matters is what people do when they “fall”.
