Searching for Normal

I shudder every time a broadcaster says we’re all getting used to our NEW normal. There is very little resembling normal these days. Not when:

• We’re rationing toilet paper as if the little Italian nonna from outside the Tower of Pisa restrooms is handing us our two square limit each trip.
• My sister, Ann, made us face masks which the guy in the post office said were “plumb cheerful”. The downside is that your glasses can steam up when you wear them and if you stop quickly to avoid a man in the aisle in front of you, your ankles pay the price when your cart-steering husband can’t see the stop.

* Going to the post office was like being in The Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld. A long line of people six feet apart moving forward to the next x on the floor when the space clears. Step up to the counter and put the packages there then immediately step back until the lone masked postal worker asks you the necessary questions. We were trying to pretend it was a normal year because we even mailed our tax payment!

*We tried to pretend it was the before time by cleaning the pine pollen off the deck and steam cleaning the ceiling and walls to remove the black residue from an exceptionally wet winter. Then we moved the plants from the kitchen outside to their homes in the deck – like we do every year. When you sit out there you can pretend all is right in the world.

*Then came Easter Sunday without sun rise services, Easter egg hunts or choirs joyfully singing “Up from the Grave He Arose” – in truth it looked a lot more like a Good Friday with its dark and stormy weather. Then we did a truly normal thing for April in Tuscaloosa Alabama. We tuned into James Spann the local meteorology legend in time to see him say we should go to our place of safety. Then the lights went out.

That night an EF1 tornado passed two blocks from our house uprooting trees, peeling back roofs and causing havoc. The golf course in our neighborhood lost 250 trees and a lot of fence. Luckily, no one lost their lives here and at our house we only lost a refrigerator full of food that wasn’t good when the power came back on 26 hours later. When we left the house the next day and saw its path, I knew our angels had been working overtime to keep us safe!

I am truly thankful for all the people still working every day to keep stores stocked, fix our carry out food, keep us healthy and safe, grow our food, make the products we need and keep our utilities on – or to restore them. I’m sending you a big fat virtual hug!

So wash your hands, wear your mask, social distance, don’t touch your face and pray unceasingly for a return to true normal where everyone who wants to work can and we can shop for things essential or not from any store we want and eat dinner from real plates in a sit down restaurant across the table from friends!

Normal will find its way back. It simply must!