Fall

It's a four letter word that has so many meanings - and I don't mean that other great Anglo-Saxon expletive (though, I am kind of fond of that one too).

FALL

As a kid it meant landing on something hard, usually tumbling off a bike, which for some reason took me forever to learn how to ride. Fall was accompanied by skinned and bloody knees, gravel encrusted in the wound, and a helpful sister that cleaned it off.

Of course there was the season - Autumn seemed too pretentious a word for a kid. Fall, it's what the leaves did, and eventually the what the snow would do.

Growing older I learned of many other falls. A fall from grace, falling behind, the fall (as in the expulsion from the garden), and many others.

It's a word so close to others: folly, fail, fault - that it can send shivers up my spine as it approaches. Yet, there is a beauty... so much beauty.

Let it come.