N is for Normal
We think we know what normal is — some idealized notion of the way life should be. In reality, normal is different for everyone. Normal is what your life is where it’s at in the moment.
In the mid-80s, “normal” for me consisted of coming home from work to a house where the central air conditioning hadn’t worked since we bought the house, taking an ice pack from the freezer, and laying on my now ex-husband’s forehead. I went upstairs and changed clothes. When I came back downstairs, he was usually conscious. He’d had a head injury at work a few months back, and he was hypersensitive to heat. From there, I could assess if I had to try to get him to the emergency room or if he was going to be fine. We were having trouble keeping his medication balanced. That was just one of a myriad of “normal” things in my life during the mid 1980s. Were they normal for anyone else? I hope not. But they were normal for me.
Thankfully, those worst years of my life to date are past, and my life is more in the “normal” range these days. How about you? Do you have a “normal” normal life or a “normal for you” life?
You’re spot on about normality. Normal is whatever your rut is. I try to be abnormal, actually. I find that I am not comfortable when my life is normal, or as I like to say, predictable.
Many opt to live a normal life on their own terms and that is fine. It’s just that life is to be enjoyed, explored and enthusiastic. For me that comes only when I step out of the realms of normality and into the area of unpredictability.
I don’t know — somewhere between “normal” and “normal for me,” I guess. And normal is a moving target, as you say.
For me, normal is chaos.