We all have an undefined sense of what Normal is to us. The thing about normal is that it is transparent and takes on the color of its environment. That is why normal looks so different to each of us. I can't tell you how many bizarre things I thought were normal because they were done over and over at my house - they came so naturally. Not until I went to a friends house in high school, did it even start to occur to me, that this was not typical family behavior. We have a joke in our family that we thought everyone's dad took his underwear in a paper bag on a date in case he got lucky. Those days are gone and we now have a more well-defined sense of how unnormal we were. But, normal has changed. I would have given anything to be raised by Donna Reed. She was so normal to me. Meals on the table, rules to be followed, chores to be done - sounded like heaven to me. The face of Normal has changed or at least evolved.
I tend not to think in terms of Normal. The balance of normal is not the right vehicle to use as a flotation device. I can't not hang on to normal nor treat is as a saving grace. These days, I am not sure now I would define being normal, having a normal family or a normal life. Normal is as individual now as it was then.
I talked to a friend this week who is battling cancer, who had a heart attack the day after he found out he had cancer. His life is anything but what his normal life was before this. His Normal for the next 8 months or so looks like chemo and radiation. Heard a Story yesterday of a girl Brandi's age who lost her mother last year to the same swallowing disorder that I have. Her life will never be normal again.
Maybe its not about being, having, searching for Normal. Its about being, having, searching for the One who makes sense of the normal and the abnormal. The fluidity of normal verses the solid Rock of Christ. I no longer try to make sense of what is or isn't normal, I just hold on the the Rock and when questioning what is going on around me, just hold on...
