How do you respond when you fall?

Whether you trip and fall flat on your face or your feet come flying out from under you?

I’m wondering because that was my experience this past weekend –

I love to dance and I jump at any chance I get, however small. I don’t know about you but I consider myself an above average dancer so imagine my surprise when I had a rare opportunity to dance with my husband and within seconds landed flat on my- well, you know.

There was a time, not too long ago, if I simply tripped over a crack in the sidewalk my cheeks burned fiery red while my eyes cut side to side to see if anyone noticed. (Please tell me I’m not the only one). I can’t even tell you where that feeling of shame came from. You know the one- thinking somehow deep down it must have been your fault, right? But I didn’t put that crack in the sidewalk or the stick on the ground, or the water or whatever it is that has caused us to trip and fall over the years.

Somehow through the past few months I have learned that. There are things that I am responsible for and things that are out of my control. That is why when I fell this past weekend – and I mean feet flying, butt on the ground fall, I just grabbed my husband’s hand got back up and kept dancing.

Did I wonder if anybody saw? Of course!

But I didn’t have that red cheeked embarrassed feeling. In fact I was more confused than anything.

When one minute you’re walking on the sidewalk and the next your feet are behind you and your face is falling towards the concrete.

Why do we always turn and look behind us? We’re expecting to see some obvious bump in our path that we had seen walking forward.

What if we did that with everything in life? Instead of getting embarrassed and letting shame keep us from enjoying life why not just looked behind us to evaluate what tripped us up in the first place?

That’s exactly what I did.

After we finished our dance and sat back down I noticed the decorative fringe from the side of my shoe had unraveled and was hanging along the ground. It was obvious now that I had stepped on the hanging strings preventing my foot from moving and landing  flat on my back side.
Mystery solved!

I couldn’t help but think how my life could’ve been so different if every time I fell instead of feeling the blame shame I simply stood back up dusted myself off and looked back to see what caused it.

If it wasn’t my fault no worries. But if I had done something to cause it wouldn’t it be great to evaluate what?

I’m a great proponent of living and learning from one’s mistakes. I only wish I didn’t half to make so many to be so wise.

So the next time you fall feel free to take a look back and see what happened.

But don’t let it keep you from moving forward and definitely don’t let keep you from dancing!