Is there a floor? Am I on it?

a mantra for the dark times

If you didn’t know the name on my birth certificate is actually Karen. It’s an unpopular name to have in 2025, but it’s the one I've got.

I’ve collected admirable Karens over the years - my fourth grade bff’s mother was named Karen and introduced me to pomegranates, and my favorite Karen Strange who taught me how to see birth through the eyes of a baby and - as an extension - how to breathe life into a newborn should need arise.

Her first directive, prior to offering resuscitation to a newborn is a mantra I’ve repeated daily - hourly - and at times faster than I could say it aloud.

”Is there a floor? Am I on it?”

Make sure your own feet are on the earth and that you’re aware of this fact before you step in to save someone else’s life.

I woke with her voice in my mind today.

It reminded me of what I wrote eight years ago.

So here it is… a fragment, a harmonic, and within it a prayer for what comes next.

”The softer times will come again.

So let's prepare for that now – today.

Small, incremental change in a positive direction.

A catalyst for good.

For the next five years, and beyond, God willing, I am going to do one great thing for myself and one good thing for someone else. Every day. It doesn't have to be feeding the homeless, but that's a good one. It doesn't have to be painful or hard. Using the life force within me for good does not have to be hard, no matter what else is happening in the world…

…Is there a floor?

Am I on it?

Am I breathing?

Then something is going right.

Start from there.

We the people are here to form a more perfect union.

But let's start from the inside this time?

Rather than fixing them, let's heal us.

And now, and now, and now.

Now begins the practice of yoga.

Atha.

Amen.”

Onward,

K