Stumbling Along

Any of my relatives can tell you I have a talent for stumbling, sometimes over my own feet, but often over nothing at all. My knees bear many scars from falling, so does my ego. In fifty-plus years, I have done a lot of stumbling. I also fell on my face a number of times. It feels like I've done little else. Therein lies a tale of woe.

Whoa! Lets not go down that path. I don't want to spend today in the pervasive darkness that has plagued me for my entire life.  I am just letting friends know that I am still here and still stumbling along. The blunders, spills, misspoken words, and epic miscalculations make me who I am.

Instead of talking about what I've stumbled over, on, and into, lets talk about a few things I've learned from those falls:

1. Your friends will laugh when you land face-first in a cow pie.
2. Laughing at your expense does not mean you aren't loved. It means your friends know funny when they see it.
3. When friends stop laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation you've fallen into, they will help you back to your feet.
4. Your best friends will help you wash the s*** off.
5. The worst tumbles make the best stories.
6. Nobody will ever forget or let you live down the epic falls.
7. Someone will capture your epic fall for posterity, share it with the friends who missed it, and probably post it to Youtube, Facebook, etc.
8. When you are a klutz, the camera phone is not your firend.
9. When your mouth and brain lack Call Waiting, you can have an epic stumble without taking a step.
10. Words can hurt you, when others react to your words with their fists.

These are just a few of the life lessons I've picked up while stumbling my way through. They haven't stopped me from making missteps. Though, from time to time, they have helped me find the strength to get back up again. Now if I could just learn how to get rid of those camera phones.