Monday, March 30, 2020

NORMAL IS MOVING. (Part 1 in a Series)

NEW! NOW you can LISTEN to the author read this essay HERE: The Scrawling Shepherd reads "Normal Is Moving"


#NormalIsMoving. #NormalIsOnTheMove. Normal doesn't live here any more. It won't be back. I'm not really worrying about it, though. I'll find it when it settles in at its new address. Don't know where it will be or what it will look like yet. But I'll catch up to it, sure enough.

It's for the best, really. The only thing Normal's old look had going for it was, well, its familiarity. I knew right where to find it. It had really settled in. It was comfortable. Because of that, it was reassuring to me. On reflection, though (because suddenly I find myself with the time to reflect, to think. I had been putting this off, because it is so much easier not to do this. Easier to kick it down the street; to put it off until a time when I might be able to think about things without being annoyed.) Normal really hasn't done that much for me. Just kept me right where I was.

Rats. No more excuses, no more reasons not to think about things. It's time I really started looking at how really messy Normal had made things. Normal is the enemy of progress; the adversary of growth, the antagonist of change. I'd go on, but I left my thesaurus in my actual office/classroom, and in my home office/classroom/broadcasting studio, I don't have room for it.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm pretty excited to imagine the possibilities of Normal's new place. In fact, I've got some ideas I'm going to suggest. For now, though, I'll keep them to myself. I don't want to spoil your joy at being able to have some input into what your new Normal is going to look like.

I just know this. I won't find Normal in the usual place any more. And now that I'm coming to realize that, I think I'll be okay. Maybe I'll be a little more reluctant to let Normal get so comfortable in its next location. #NormalIsATraveler.





3 comments:

Travis said...

Yes! While we pray for God's help and direction in the seriousness of these times, this is really an opportunity. Thank you for encouraging reflection and growth.

Ken Payne Jr said...

Change (New Normal) is good, as long as we don't change JUST to change, there needs to be a reason to change I.E. the old way no longer works, or we can do this better. Right now we are being forced to change, and we are all learning to do things differently. When we no longer have to social distance or selves, hopefully some of the olds way will come back, but not all, may be we can merge the old and the new into BETTER, that is the goal I would think

Unknown said...

Hi Dennis,

I appreciate you taking the time to write and give us the encouraging positive thoughts. I do believe that things will change and although change is uncomfortable, it usually results in something better. may we all be looking to be better than what we were. Keep those positive thoughts coming. may you stay safe and well.