Getting Back to Normal

After four weeks of hospitals, rearranged household chores, logistical challenges and all the worry, there is a glimmer of finding a routine, a new normal, and what’s ahead for the next few years. That statement alone, is the bridge to tomorrow.


For some it is a bridge too far. For others it is painful, disappointing, and crushing.


Flip that image upside down and the bridge appears.


Step onto the bridge. From wherever you are, feel the new and different surface of the bridge. Feel for its heft and stability. Does it shudder when you stomp your foot? Does it swing back and forth? Or does it hold firm and promise a steady path forward?


Usually the latter. A connection to what’s yet to be. A future of…possibility.


The future is not known. That’s what makes it the future. We can wonder about it. We can estimate it. We can dream it. But only stepping into it will we come to know it.


And what it will do for our life.


I don’t know how I will react to the changes. I can’t know how I will understand the new, incorporate it into my life. I can try it and live it moment by moment and experience the freedom I have in getting to know it. What does this new world mean? What does it mean specifically to me? How will it affect my life going forward? Will I discover new strengths and talents? Will I know what to do and how to make the most of it?


Or will I cower, duck and avoid? Will I turn around and get off the bridge where I first got on? If I do, what will my life be like then?


Possibility is attractive to me. Possibility holds excitement, wonder and promise of things I will learn to cherish and enjoy. The past life and its routine are now gone and the new beckons. It is the promise of possibility that makes the transition a worthy enterprise and attractive.


After life-changing events, there is no getting back to normal. It is only a getting to a new normal.

What it holds is the possibility and the promise. It won’t be easy, but it will be interesting.


What delights await my discovery? And ours?


August 1, 2019