Haiku 2023–191

having fallen down

because of bad decisions

I embrace the floor

— —

How I ended up on the floor is unimportant. Why I ended up on the floor is also unimportant. In both cases, a veritable litany of bad decisions made over forty years conspired to put me literally on my back in the kitchen staring at the ceiling with a bruised nose. I’m generally someone who gets embarrassed about something like this and does my best to pop right back up and say that absolutely nothing is wrong with me. I didn’t do that on this occasion. I happened to fall down next to an air conditioner register which had made the vinyl flooring rather cool and let the cold air blow right over top of me. I took the moment to collect myself and my thoughts. Yes, I thought about all the decisions great and small that lead me to be lying there on the floor and knew that every single one of them was in the past and couldn’t be changed. What I did know is that the floor gave me a sturdy place to push off from and make better decisions, decisions that will keep me off the floor in the future. Decisions that will make me, overall, a better person. This haiku does not embrace bad decisions, it celebrates the opportunity for change.