Falling - moving downward, rapidly and freely without control.
Fall is my favorite season, but I have to say falling is not always my favorite “F” word. I paint people Flying, Falling and Floating thru space. Falling is the most visceral of the three “F”. For some people their hearts palpate or their breath quickens when they think of falling or see a painting or photo of someone falling.
I have fallen by choice, free-falling from an airplane. I have fallen by accident, when my 130-lb dog decided to chase after a horse while I was holding his leash, sending me falling face first into a muddy pond. And of course there are the times I have found myself falling out of control emotionally, those times when life has shoved me over some cliff.
For me these out-of-control experiences have been more profound than the physical falls. The heart-sinking anguish that is felt when I knew I caused pain in others. Or those kick-me-in-the knees, falling-on-your-face wakeup calls that force me to face my demons. Then there are the times when I have just flat-out failed, followed by looking in the mirror and taking out the magnifying glass to examine and hopefully correct my fall from grace.
Falling and failing are part of life and probably happen more than we wish to admit. You fall. Then you pick your ass up and try it again maybe, with out falling so hard the next time. Falling is life. Picking yourself up is living. Or shall we say it is just being human. Try until you fall. Then pick yourself up again. Repeat.
Here are some Falls and results of falling.
Frida Khalo was in a car accident that caused her to have 30 operations and left her unable to bear children. She did portraits of herself while she laid in bed recovering from her accident.
Nick Woodman started an online gaming service called Funbug. Only to go belly up costing investors $3.9 million. Now that is one big fall. He decided to drop out and go on a surfodyssey and ended up changing the way we view the world with the GoPro.
Walt Disney was told he lacked creativity. His company Laugh-O-Gram failed. Well you know the rest of the story.
Falling gives us the opportunity to grow from the bottom up.