I played with calling this Pandemic a “NEW” normal as everyone is calling it, but that particular “new” in my life happened when I got divorced after 33 years. That gut wrenching trauma amidst waling and panic attacks flip flopped my life forever. It was my sentence, one broken and lonely night when I said to myself, “I’ll be glad when things get back to normal”……..and it hit me in the face…it was ALL gone. I had to create a “NEW” normal. So began a new chapter in my life….new home, new faces, new interests, nothing left of the old life but my children, and they were forever changed and ……… different.
Twenty six years earlier the “END” of a chapter happened when I went to pick up my baby son in his crib and he had passed in the night. I was 25, bullet proof, young, full of life and my future lay before me until that moment. That devastation lasted 20 years before I was able to quit crying. But never was I seeking a “New” normal. It stole my youth, my expectations and hopes and moved me into a world of knowing that I was like everybody else and that things that happened to others could happen to me too. The greatest gift from that experience was that I cried out to God…….
A new marriage to Russ, This chapter in our lives brought a new home and new faces to both of us. All things for both have changed..new friends, new interests and activities neither of us experienced before in our past lives. Out of the devastation of my divorce and the passing of his beloved wife, has come a “new” normal. As a precious friend once told me, “in every life the rain must fall, and ONCE in a while, the sun will shine….” God sez “Weeping may endure for a night, BUT JOY COMES IN THE MORNING ! ! ! ! ”
And now, this pandemic. EVERYTHING as we know….where has it gone? I can’t hug my daughters or kiss my sons? I told my 2 Too in Florida not to come visit till maybe after Sept…but who knows? We used to hug all of our friends, ………. there seems to be no end in sight. We see how the art of doing business is changing…I fear it will NEVER go back to the way it was. Social distancing seems to be here to stay.
For the 1st time in my life, I WANT THINGS BACK AS THEY WERE! Yet God is good (though I find him on TV now)…I’m enjoying the simpler things in life. I have always loved cooking, now even more so. We went to a restaurant for our wedding anniversary last week and decided to hold off going again for a month and see how this “open” state is going in regards to spread of the virus. And the new gift of God…I have birds that eat their food as I walk around the patio. They are not afraid of me and I’m loving it ! ! ! New things….but I can’t wrap my head around a “NEW” normal.
NO GARAGE SALES. $500 fine if you’re busted w/o a permit and last I heard, no permits right now. Can’t have a gathering of over 10 people…6 ft. apart.
Laughter will come again!
