Believe it or not that is the definition even as it stands today. But I’ve decided there really is no such thing as normal. Instead, I view normalcy as a homeostatic mechanism that returns us to a baseline, so to speak, after life happens. An individualistic coping device that helps us get through each day.
A high school friend of mine recently lost her younger sister to cancer. It was heart-wrenching and tragic and every other word you can think of to describe such an event. Since there was such distance between us, I received updates here and there, but could do very little. After she passed, I waited a few months and sent my friend a care package. Nothing big, just something to ease the … transition. The Thank you note was amazingly strong; admirable in its resilience. She simply stated that she was ‘working toward her new normal’.
