Every now and again, something happens that jolts us- a life-altering event that has the power to change everything. Sometimes, we have control over the event or we cause it, like a new job or a marriage. Sometimes, we’re powerless, such as when death or illness strikes.
I remember the early days when my daughter was born. Excitement turned quickly into exhaustion and I felt my sanity slowly slipping away with every lost moment of sleep. Eventually, I learned to embrace her for who she was, rather than question her continual demands. In fact, over time, that fiery little beast chipped away at my ideals of what parenting was supposed to be and made me, in my opinion, a better parent and a more giving person. Though I never would have imagined it possible through my bleary, bloodshot eyes at the time, I am grateful for the growth that experience brought me and glad that we had so much time together to bond.
I also remember when I got the call that my mother had her stroke. I don’t talk about this often, because of the strong emotions, but in a way, it was like hearing of her death. Up until that moment, my mother had been my best friend, often, my only friend. We were in different states, but we’d speak several times a week, sometimes for hours on end. In an instant, all of that was gone. My mom is no longer capable of a phone call lasting longer than a minute or two. She doesn’t remember details of my life or events that happened months before her stroke. Sometimes, I still wake up on Sundays and think about what to talk to her about until I remember that I can’t call her. That is gone, and I’m learning to embrace a new “normal,” because, thankfully, she is still alive. Moreover, she’s still full of humor and vibrancy, even if her memory is often scattered.
And, now, as cryptic as it sounds, I’m trying to embrace another new normal. My semi-absence here on answerMug is a symptom of that. Sometimes, life shakes us and we wonder exactly how we will overcome it, or if we ever will, but as long as we’re alive, these bumps in the road are just that. They’re opportunities for growth and can either break us, change us or help us to be better people. Really, in the end, the choice is ours. It’s the baby steps we take in that journey that decide what will come of our life-changing events- whether our new normal will be something wonderful or whether it will have less than desirable results.
Will you share one of your journeys to a new normal with us? What was the event, the steps you took and the end result?
