Some big finish lines have been crossed this week.

The book has been turned in, my foot is in a shoe, and it’s time to settle back in to normal life.

There is a certain kind of post excitement lull that accompanies you on the road back to normal.

It’s not a low. Just a lull.
But the truth is, our lulls comprise most of what life is about.

I still have that post surgery limp swagger.
But you can sense my anxiousness to get back to normal by the camera angle that portrayed my last date.

I also recently experienced the fact that in a 50,000 word document, #49,999 and #50,000 are the two best words in a writer’s life.
They are also the last two words of a writer’s book.
Which means I am now

Back to normal.

And I find myself musing over what this word even means.

Most of us use it to refer to the “between” stages of life. When we are in between crises, or accomplishments, or sorrows, or joys, life is normal.
Nothing too good or too bad is happening, and you are just…normal

But there is one thing “normal” can teach you if you spend any time thinking about it.
The fact is, it is a state of being that actually doesn’t exist.

Because every time you wake up to one more day of air and life and love and legs and arms and jobs and family and healed surgeries and written books, you’ve already way exceeded normal.

And you haven’t even done anything yet.
You’re just living in the grace of what welcomed you when you woke up.

So on days when we are “back to normal”, we should remember there really isn’t any such thing.
There are only days filled with gifts we’ve labeled as normal because of their familiarity.

They are quiet and calm and steady and expected.
And almost seem
Normal.

Don’t be fooled.