After the choppy seas of the past seven months, we’re finally returning
to normal. However, after the
challenging times behind us, what is normality?
The waters are calm and peaceful again: my husband is
back at work; I’ve submitted a new short story to a US publisher, another is
about to go off to a South African publisher; and we’ve returned from a short,
soul-restoring holiday to Kaapschehoop.
What a relief to realise that after traumatic events – be it the loss of
a loved one or a life threatening illness — life goes on and normality
eventually returns.
Or does it?
While on the surface life seems to return to the same rhythms as before
the crisis, there are small beacons
flashing reminders that irrevocable changes have occurred: the frozen Facebook
profile of a deceased friend; the multitude of scars criss-crossing my husband’s
body; and the red-ringed date on my calendar marking the first of his many
future check-ups.
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| Can life ever return to normal after rough seas have battered our shores? Image purchased from www.iStock.com ©iStock.com/"Waves" by airn |
It’s less than a year since our lives changed. We’re still
picking through the flotsam, discarding psychological and physical debris, re-designing
our world, for life can’t ever return to what it was.
Post-trauma, when the rough seas abate and we dock on rocky shores, we look
around and discover a new world. Small yellow dandelions creep through the
cracks in the rock; the sun is partially obscured by clouds ... but dandelions
aren’t always weeds and clouds also bring purifying rain.
Filled with gratitude, we anchor ourselves and accept that life, no matter
how changed, can still thrive and grow in this land of our new normality.
