Back to normal

Yesterday, January 2, was “back to normal”. This is the day that signifies that the holidays are over. It is the day when the reality of our normal routine hits. We return to work, we start exercising again, we try to get our finances in some state of order, knowing that January will be a ‘tight’ month with bills of Christmas now coming due. It is the day when we start getting the children ready to go back to school, when they “wind down” from the festivities and panoply of gifts. It is a time of paying for the past – working off the extra pounds gained, paying off debts incurred. It is the day when we start our “normal” lives all over again.

What IS normal? Is this what our normal life is like? Is this what we WANT normal to look like?

Shouldn’t normal be languorous time spent with family and friends? The special care we take with planning, preparing and serving meals? The extra special wine we carefully choose to go with the meal? Shouldn’t it be the love with which we select and give our gifts? Or the time we spend sleeping a little later than usual – or just taking a few moments in bed to greet the beautiful day? The phone calls we make and e-mail we send to folks with whom we have not connected for awhile? No, these things are not normal, for these are not the things we are going “back” to. These are the things we consider abnormal. Most of them have little or no part of our normal lives. And yet we love these moments so. These are the moments that bring sighs of joy, squeals of delight, and sounds of relish – the stuff of which memories are made. These are the moments that long after they have passed, remain with us as beautiful memories. These are our present moments – our true gifts!

Why aren’t these things considered normal? Simply because we don’t view them so. We just don’t believe that we could live this way. “Get real” we are told. Since the New Year is also a time of making new resolutions, could this be an opportunity to redefine “normal”? Perhaps we could start to view these special moments as normal, not abnormal. In so doing, we would begin a process of changing the way we live, so that January 2 of each year would be a continuation of our normal life of love, connection and joy.