Fall can be a negative word.
In a fall, we are usually defeated.
We fall when our efforts fail.
We fall off the wagon.
We fall into depression.
We fall out of Grace.
When stocks fall, it’s damaging.
When something befalls us, it’s usually detrimental.
When I typed the word “fall” in Microsoft Word, these are the replacement words: Reduction, Decrease, Drop, Tumble, Descent, Plummet, Plunge, and Collapse.
When we descend into chaos, it’s negative. Plunge into darkness, sad. Collapse, debilitating.
We all have had falls in our lives like many of the ways I mention, if not all of them. However, what comes after a fall?
A rise.
A familiar phrase that we’ve all heard, and likely used to encourage someone who was at their lowest, is, “There is nowhere to go but up.”
When we are in the midst of a fall, ‘up’ isn’t even on our radar. We are typically frightened, full of anxiety, and often feel hopeless. However, knowing that after a fall comes a rise, we can learn to set our sights on a different view of our circumstances.
Microsoft replacement words for “Rise” are: Increase, Growth, Upsurge, Intensification, Escalation, Upswing, Augmentation, and Enlargement.
Fall in seasons is a time of harvest. It’s when we reap what we planted in the spring. In that, fall is a positive word.
Replacement words are Harvest, Crop, Yield, Produce, Return, Fruitage, Ingathering, Reap, and Gather.
Those are power-packed words.
But if we don’t fall, we also don’t have to stand up. We don’t learn, grow, and relate to others. We don’t move into different seasons of our lives.
When I heard that Fleur de Lis Pizza announced in July that they were closing indefinitely, my first thought was that they were moving into a different season of life. While everyone else was sad, I found that I felt a bit of excitement for them. I didn’t know the details of why they decided to close, but I knew that even in negative circumstances, a positive new direction can spring to life.
In this issue, we decided to highlight incredible, inspirational women! All the contributors are women as well, (including me!). Women who have taken a fall, but have also gotten back up. Women who have all overcome adversity, trauma, and illness to bounce into another season of their lives. They have each found something positive through their circumstances and created a life worth living, and they all live it well.
The picture I am using for this editor’s letter is one that my daughter took of me at Fleur de Lis. Another picture there, the one with the pink background used in a previous editor’s letter, as well as the cover of my book, Stop Playing the Part, was also taken that same day.
That day I did not know that my life was about to take a free-fall into circumstances that would propel me into a new and exciting season of my life and career.
As seen in Modern Grace Magazine
