Falling

As the leaves begin to wither and drop, fall will soon make its exit. We are slowly falling into winter.

The word ‘fall’ connotes so many things, both happy and sad. Leaves fall, of course, in autumn, but people can fall in all sorts of ways, too.

We often say we fall into things. We fall into a pool. We fall into a habit. We fall into conversation. Something might fall into decay. We fall in love.

Oddly, we also fall out of things, which is generally a negative move. We fall out of line. We fall out of a boat or a tree. We fall out with another person. Hair can fall out. We can fall out of love.

There is also the noun ‘fallout,’ which refers to the adverse side effects of a situation, or the physical result of a nuclear explosion.

As humans, we seem to do a lot of falling, which is fitting as we are all imperfect beings living in an imperfect world. Even the military uses the terms ‘fall in’ and ‘fall out’ when referring to a line formation.

We fall and the leaves cushion the blow. We get back up again, brushing the leaves from our knees. We know we’ll fall again, just as the trees will bud and bloom again after the long winter.