Unless you are a realized being, pain is an inherent part of life. Quote on quote "bad things" will always happen to us. We will make "mistakes" and hurt ourselves and others. Who we want to be and who we are will drift apart. To put in short, like Hayden so eloquently, we will fall. If you kayak you must swim, if you ski you must crash, if you live you must fall. Pain is an inherent part of the human experience and no matter how hard we try we will never, ever be able to run from our problems. Yet the pain can be so great that we may not feel capable of facing them.
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It is funny actually, what may feel like falling is in actually just realizing that we are already on the ground. It doesn't feel good, but that hard slap to the face deserves to be appreciated. I cheated on a girl once. When I finally realized what I did, what really struck me was not that what I did was a self-serving, selfish thing to do but instead the realization that
I was selfish and self-serving.
Before we can start walking again, we have to stand up. But standing up can be so hard. Where am I supposed to find the courage to look myself in the eyes again and accept myself as something that I do not want to be? I'm with Nietzsche here, "what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger" but I would add, only if we have the courage to accept our situation, otherwise, the pain will kill you and it will be impossible to learn. So now I know when I fall there is no choice: stand up or die.