[Adventure] in Normal

[Adventure 17]

I was just looking at memories on social media. Memories from ten years ago when doctors finally began to take me seriously after a literal lifetime of being given reasons for ailments that just didn't fit. These were the days when I was certain a diagnosis would yield a treatment, which would help me get my life back to normal. 

Normal looks a lot different than I thought it would. 

Normal is being in pain all the time and have a body that's completely unpredictable. Normal is finding new and creative ways to do things I love and discovering new things I love to do that I probably wouldn't have previously tried. Normal is discovering courage to make mistakes and try again; to let go of things that don't serve me; and to say yes - or no - despite the fear. Normal is being both more responsible and more frivolous at the same time.

Normal looks like crutches and a wheelchair or walking on my own two feet. Normal looks like days in bed or hours in the woods. Normal looks like braces and splints and TENS unit wires. 

But what is normal, anyway? 

Normal is completely overrated. Normal is complacency with how things have always been. Normal is at the same time too safe and too dangerous. Normal can be comfortable and comforting. Normal can be being stuck in old ways of thinking and doing and believing. It can be living your life blind to the suffering and injustices around you. Normal can stunt your growth.

And these days, normal looks different for all of us.

Normal is wearing masks, living with the possibility of getting seriously ill, living with limitations as to what we can do and with whom we can be in contact. It is planning our lives around staying safe from possible illness. Normal is living with the unpredictability of each day - or the seemingly unchanging predictability of quarantine. Todays normal is reminiscent of the normal I've lived for the past ten years. 

However long this new normal is going to last and whether it's the good kind or bad kind of adventure is in great part due to how we choose to live our lives - and how those around us choose to live theirs.