Rise Again

You stood at the edge of your own undoing,

counting every crack in the ground as if they were proof of your unworthiness.

You replayed the stumble, the slip, the crash

as though failure was a movie that deserved infinite sequels.

But listen;

not every fall is a death.

Sometimes a fall is the body teaching the soul what it means to rise.

Forgive the trembling knees, the missed step, and the shattered plans.

Forgive the version of you who didn’t know better until the floor taught you differently.

You are not the failure.

You are the pulse that kept going,

the lungs that refused to stop breathing, the quiet voice that still whispers, try again.

And when you forgive yourself, you are not erasing the past;

you are setting down the stone you should never have been carrying alone