Why We Fall

I was a foal, and my father pushed me down.
I was a foal, and my mother pushed me down.
I was a foal, and the older foals pushed me down.
I was a foal, and the customers at the shop pushed me down.
I was a foal, and the teacher pushed me down.
I was a foal, and the stallion in the hat gave me a chance.
I grew older;
My father still pushed me down.
My mother still pushed me down.
Other stallions still pushed me down.
People I worked for pushed me down.
People I was supposed to learn from pushed me down.
And the stallion the hat was gone, but his memory remained, and it was still kind.

And the reason I was pushed down so many times was because every time, I got back up.

Many years have passed since then, and I've tasted a lot of dirt and humiliation. But now I'm steadier on my hooves, and every time I hit the ground, I stayed down a little shorter, and I learned a little more. My parents are gone. The other stallions I left behind. I work for myself now. I've learned how to learn on my own, and that if I'm willing to listen, I can learn a hell of a lot from the people around me... maybe even more than I ever learned from so-called 'experts.'
And that memory, of that stallion in the hat, is still with me.

I was pushed down.
And I learned to get back up.
And that has made all the difference in my life.

If I'd never gone through all the horrible, the hard times, spent so much time fighting, enduring, I never would have learned that rejection letters are a step forwards and not a step backwards, that I can keep pushing forwards even when the world doesn't seem to want to have me, that even when all hope seems lost, there's always someone out there willing to lend a hoof if you'll just open your mind to them. That even when the whole world seems to hate you, and you hate it back, that doesn't give you the right to lash out and destroy it... because among all the bad, you're going to hurt someone good, too. You're going to hurt the one thing that might help you through it all. And it taught me that it's all the hard times, the rough times, the vicious times that really taught me how to enjoy and prosper in the peace and the good times, and prepared me for the road ahead.
It's important to remember that, especially if you want to write. Because writing is about the life you live. Not the life you just sit through and let pass you by. Writing is about falling down maybe even more than it is about getting back up.


~Scrivener Blooms