
A friend who is undergoing some major changes in her life, asked if it was possible to feel normal again.
That triggered me into thinking about the changes in my life over the past few years and that I am, right now, working on developing yet another ‘normal’ for my life going forward.
Six and a half years ago I fell off a sea wall and smashed my leg. That is pretty much where anything that could fall into a category of ‘normal’ totally disappeared! I was relegated to bed for nine weeks and during that time arguments with our bank about a mistake they had made eight years previously came to a head and our business and home were repossessed.
There was nothing normal about the following year, living hand-to-mouth and worrying about homelessness on top of all our other woes.
Things did eventually settle down and it became our normal, every couple of months, to pile our belongings into a wheelbarrow and move to a new house. Even this ‘normality’ changed when my husband and I decided to part ways and I moved into a separate place and started to find a level of stability.
Two more house moves. He was diagnosed with two life-threatening illnesses and I was becoming more and more unable to move due to chronic pain from arthritis and a million and one old injuries from my days as an elite athlete. Normal changed again when we decided that we should house share in order to support each other with our growing disabilities.
He went into remission and became adventurous eventually resulting in him leaving to live with a new lady friend. I wished them well, but now my new normal was living in a rural area, by myself, without transport to hospitals and several surgeries scheduled. That meant my normal had to change again. That was probably the hardest of all the changes, and yet, for the first time in many years, it feels as if this new normal has a possibility of being the best yet.
I moved into the centre of town. I’m now on a busy main road with a supermarket right next door and the doctor’s office a five minute walk up the road. I live in a tiny cottage, suitable for just one person, and with a garden big enough to grow some food. Because of my age and disabilities, and my newly diagnosed neuro-divergent mental health issues, I discovered that I was eligible for financial assistance to pay for cleaners, gardeners, disability aids, transport…..
Normal. I’ve often asked, ‘what is normal?.’ Is there such a thing as ‘normal?’ Until 1840, the word ‘normal’ was not even in the basic English language. It was a term referring to mathematics!!! It comes from a Latin word – norma – which refers to a carpenter’s square. It seems so strange in today’s world that ‘normal’ first referred to something that was a tool to measure right angles!! There is some amazing information about this to be found in a Google search!
My new normal is changing every day. The builder who is renovating this cottage I live in, is still doing work outside. At the moment he is building a car port; I’m discovering so many different fruit trees in the garden, and I am learning to live with the restricted movements of dodgy joints. Normal may change again fairly soon. My neurosurgeon wants to do a nerve block and I am up for anything that may reduce pain. Maybe my new normal after that will include being able to do Tai Chi again… who knows?





