The Climbers Fall
Launching this website on Wednesday, was one of the best and most fulfilling days I’ve had in a long time. Launching this new home of mine into the world was a long time coming and it was like reaching the summit on a new stage on the mountain range of life. My struggle seems to be when I pause and look at the view,I look down and let out the deep breath I was holding in to reach the summit. When all the air leaves and deflates my lungs it takes my balance and equilibrium with it and leaves me teetering at the edge. Now between my spastic cerebral palsy and struggles with anxiety and depression being spastic at the edge of a mountain range isn’t great. I have fallen many times both physically, four broken arms, and 5 twisted ankles later and my body has come back stronger every time. Mentally I have fallen, of course, many times not getting help especially when I was younger, and climbing back up the cliff was much harder on my own. Then getting tools and help with psychotherapy and psychiatry I have gotten very strong tools that help me climb better and fall less. I still fall but even when I fall far down and get very hurt along the way I know my way to the hospitals to get urgent care.
The moment you notice you are at the edge of the cliff sometimes comes as a shock, and sometimes you have been sitting on a bench two feet back and can’t handle sitting on the edge anymore. One isn’t better than the other, they are just different and have many different triggers, and sometimes require different care. Sometimes you have the split-second of focus, and you are able to take a step back, even just a stumble backward. Sometimes though mentally you have already let go and the tumble down the cliff feels comfortable and needed, and then you fall forward rather than back. Falling and staying on the mountain are both important and both have their own pros and cons, and you learn different things about yourself and life. Each fall, slide, or climb down part of the mountain, gives you practice on how to fall better and hurt less doing so. While making you stronger at getting up, and taking you on a slightly different path to the next summit. There may be people who don’t fall on climbing to their summits in life but I haven’t met one yet, the more times we fall we learn how to fear the fall less and rather embrace it. You can only fall if you are climbing up so go out embrace the fears, fall, and climb again.
The angle is someone taking the shot themselves, angled downward. Someone wearing a white t-shirt, green khakis, and red sneakers standing at the edge of a red-brown cliff, with views of azure water below.