Normals, new and old

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.  They must be felt with the heart.  -Helen Keller

Normal is good.  I’m feeling normal.  I fear this feeling because I know it isn’t lasting.  In a little over four months our normal is going to be tossed around a bit. 

Sometimes I miss our Old Normal.  Only pieces of it though.  But always focusing on the journey ahead keeps my head up.   There are pieces of our New Normal that make everything easier to embrace.  New Normals always have challenges, new personal traits, learning experiences and spontaneity.

As a novice wife, I used to find the challenges such as new traits a source of contention.  However, with experience and time I have learned that if I always remember how we grow and mature through experiences as individuals it is only natural.  As a family, we can look at each other and realize that we are the same people, just with exciting new ways about us.

Do I miss anything?  I could probably think long enough and pity myself into missing certain prior emotional traits of Major, but that would be denying the trueness of our military livelihood.  It is who we are.  I suppose the one thing I truly miss and will always is not missing.

However, just like anything in life, if I focus on the not so pretty things, it WILL always be ugly.  So, I continue to make every attempt to find the pretty things in my life.

The beauty that the deployment has brought me thus far is coming almost halfway in my Master’s internship, a huge sense of accomplishment, independence, meeting of people I would have never met, the joy of seeing who really are friends and supports to me, and seeing how my children are the strongest people I will ever know.

Major has stayed busy since his return.  Having to fill in for #1 and be #2 has kept his mind focused and passed the time.  He continues to request shipment of his best friend Copenhagen and has new catch phrases for everything I say (“Do it for your country” and “if you don’t like terrorists, you would do it”) I laugh every time.