Date: September 22, 2020 | Danielle Damrell

 In honor of the first day of Fall (my absolute favorite season) I wanted to share this revelation I had last night, right after having a panic attack…

Sometimes in life we fall. And I don’t know about you, but when I fall, I fall hard. The ground shakes, my fear escalates, and for a brief moment I feel as though I have no hope…

In honor of the first day of Fall (my absolute favorite season) I wanted to share this revelation I had last night, right after having a panic attack.

Sometimes in life we fall. And I don’t know about you, but when I fall, I fall hard. The ground shakes, my fear escalates, and for a brief moment I feel as though I have no hope. The overwhelming sensations of failure rushes through my entire being as though I purposefully caused myself to fall... but 99.9% of the time, that is not the case. I didn’t FAIL because I tried to do something that didn’t end up working out. The revelation I had last night could be summed up in this one sentence:

We FALL because we’re striving for better and we FAIL when we don’t even try.

When we fall, we can get back up knowing that life is hard, but at least we’ve made an effort. We can grow from that. We can gain strength from the struggle. We can understand that bumps and bruises are the cornerstones to the overall structure of our lives and stories.

In this season of Fall, we watch as the leaves change color and drop to the ground. This isn’t a sign that the tree is dying, but rather a sign that it is preparing for the winter. Did the tree FAIL because it lost all its leaves? NO! After winter, the tree will GROW and produce strong branches and leaves come spring. What a beautiful analogy for the hope that exists when we walk through dry, cold, hard seasons of life.

The dictionary definition of failure is “the lack of success” and I know for a fact that some of my biggest perceived “failures” have, in the long run, caused my most successful achievements.

I am not a failure. I am an uncoordinated, clumsy, blundering, awkward human being FALLING on the path towards freedom.