Stumble

stum•ble
v. stum•bled, stum•bling, stum•bles
v.intr.
1.
a. To miss one's step in walking or running; trip and almost fall.
b. To proceed unsteadily or falteringly; flounder. See Synonyms at blunder.
c. To act or speak falteringly or clumsily.
2. To make a mistake; blunder.
3. To fall into evil ways; err.
4. To come upon accidentally or unexpectedly: "The urge to wider voyages . . . caused men to stumble upon New America" (Kenneth Cragg).
v.tr.
(Source: The Free Dictionary by Farlex)

When a word has multiple meanings, is it just a result of accidents in linguistic history or can one draw deeper meaning?

In the definition of ‘stumble’ how does “to come upon accidently or unexpectedly” relate to “miss one’s step” or “make a mistake”?

Can the relationship be defined through the concept of “serendipity” or is it also a statement of the adage of learning from one’s mistakes?

And what about “to fall into evil ways or err”, is that the result of not learning from one’s mistakes?

I stumble regularly.

Things are going smooth and suddenly a dark cloud of dissatisfaction descends on me.

In days past each stumble would mostly cause me to err and sometimes even fall into evil ways.

These days instead mostly I recover with a new insight into myself and the world around me.

Wonder whether this happy change comes naturally with age or is it one of the many symptoms of, like good wine, aging well?

PS I am in a stumble right now and this post is part of the process of getting back my stride.