Normal Days

We are finally beyond our intense birthday season (for the kids, anyway) and although we are still living out our Easter days, Lent and the associated Holy days are behind us. We are finally healthy again, besides poor little Peter's broken arm, and things are looking pretty normal around here. Sometimes normal feels so good! Even if we know it will be fleeting.

There are less than 6 weeks until this baby is anticipated to arrive, so I know this normalcy won't last for long. It's a good time for me to settle in try to live with a little bit more intention. Distraction free for now, I can enjoy the flow of mundane days without special occasions cropping up constantly and sending me into a tailspin of busyness and rushing.

Still, I know that there is no such thing as a consistent, even pace. The very nature of family life means that things are in constant flux. Sure, for a few weeks here and there we may think we have mastered it, finally arrived, found the plateau. Like a baby sleeping through the night for a month or so, we think we have finally figured it out and nothing will ever change again. But things change. We say babies "revert," but truly? They are just people. People change. Seasons change. Families change.

Spending all our time in an endless search for a constant, never changing normalcy will only end up frustrating us. Instead, I'm trying to enjoy the easy days. The ones where nothing much happens, where it feels like I have a hope of mastering it. I enjoy them because I know that they are the rare ones. Really not normal at all. Life is a constantly evolving, impossible to label resistance against compartmentalization. It's how we grow. It's how we learn. It's how we stand a chance of making it through the rough times, with the adaptability we have been practicing since day one.

Truly normal days are the ones where arms break. Where the unanticipated happens. Where we lose our footing and struggle to find it again. That's where strength grows - in that fight for balance.

When I find myself craving all things smooth, easy, uninterrupted and simple, I'm reminded of just this. Strength comes from struggle, and life truly lives in the jostle of the unexpected.


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