the bathroom floor.

I recently read something that described the current political situation in our country as the United States of America being "on the bathroom floor".  The claim implied that we are officially at the lowest point in political history, and there is nowhere to go from here but up.

I immediately had two thoughts (not in any particular order):

1)  God I hope that's true.
2)  I love the idea of describing something as being on the bathroom floor (I actually had a third thought and which was "man I wish I wrote that").

It's just such a positively perfect way to describe being at the lowest point of something - and it can easily apply to so many things.


An addiction.
A career.
A project.
A marriage.
A life.
A presidential campaign being led by a racist, misogynistic, self important crybaby.

(Obama telling Trump to quit his whining.)

The bathroom floor is the place we lay on our back, stare up at the ceiling and ask ourselves how in the hell we ever got here.  We reflect back on our path and the choices we made that landed us in this space filled with regret, confusion and pain.  

Yet as our tears fall on the cold tile we realize we still have choices.  We can either accept to stay there, or we can decide it's time to scrape ourselves up off the ground and start rebuilding.  The bathroom floor isn't the end unless we let it be.  If we take the pain and lessons that brought us there and turn them into energy it can actually be a beginning.  

Yes, the bathroom floor is where a new chapter starts, but interestingly it's also when we are in our most vulnerable and fragile state.  

We have all known someone in this place haven't we?  Someone who found themselves in a financial crisis, a marital crisis or (my personal favorite) a midlife crisis.  We can hear the vulnerability in their voice and see the uncertainty in their actions...and for good reason.  Chances are their whole world just got rocked and they don't know what to believe in anymore.  They may not even be sure if they can believe in themselves.

I will admit that in the past there have been times when my initial reaction was to shy away.  To listen politely but not "get involved".  Aren't we all a little nervous that if we support someone who is down on their luck too much we might catch the bad luck bug ourselves?  So we look but don't touch.

It's easier to question their choices.  To assure ourselves that we would never have been so careless or selfish or foolish to end up on the bathroom floor as they have.  We would have done it differently.  We would have done it better.

That's not at all how I see it today.  Whether it's ourselves or someone we know who has hit that low point I think it's the perfect time for learning.  For growth.  For compassion.

More importantly, it's a time for grace.

When our knees hit the floor and it feels like rock bottom, that's the time to show what we're really made of. 

It's the time for us hold ourselves, or someone else, or this country in our hands as gently as possible so the healing can begin.

It's our time to bring our best self forward.  

It's our time to not turn away.

It's our time to rise up.


xo - juli

PS - If you're looking for me between now and Nov. 8th you know where to find me. ;)