Normal.

Have you ever felt the joy of "normal"?  I mean REALLY felt the euphoria of your routine and your normal, every day life?  Well, it's most delicious.  Let me help you understand what I mean exactly.

1)  You're on vacation.  It's a great time.  Lots of things to do, places to see, people you may be visiting.  The hotels are nice and have all conveniences.  Maybe you're at the lake; the cabin could be great.  Food is fun; maybe hotdogs on a campfire, or a restaurant you stumbled on by accident that had the absolutely best halibut, or chocolate cake you've ever had.  Your vacation could not be more perfect.  But once home, you have a shower in your own bathroom.  Your enjoy your familiar soaps and towels.  They smell of home; feel wonderful.  Tucking yourself into bed, you find your favourite spot, pull the blankets up just the way you want them and snuggle into the pillow that has only held your head.  It is bliss.  This is your normal and it feels SO good. 

2)  You wake up after a vacation and get your life back to it's routine; laundry gets done, you make and take meals at home, you wear your yoga pants all day while you get back into your groove.  Oh, that feels so good!  Just padding around home and getting your house running, but also taking that time to BE home.  Just every day stuff, but because you've been away from it, the being back at it is normal and is delicious. 

3)  Guests have been visiting.  It's been a great time of laughs, local sight-seeing, shopping, dinners out, etc.  You have entirely enjoyed catching up and soaking in relationships.  But when their car drives away, you let out a long sigh.  Maybe you yawn.  You wander around YOUR house, and decide what you want to do first.  Clean it up, read a book, have a nap, sit out on the deck in the sun and just stare at nothing. It's calm. It's normal. It just oozes bliss. 

4)  It's been a week of chaos.  Maybe work has been nutty.  You've had activities for your family every night of the week.  A pipe burst.  Your car quit.  It's time for your annual dental and medical appointments.  You had no time to get to the gym.  Maybe it was the week of the kids camp and you offered to help for four days out of five.  The week hasn't been normal at all.  You barely get through it.  The weekend comes. It's full of stuff; things that chewed up every moment of your days off.  But Monday happens, and this time, it's more normal.  Things flow as they have for most of the normal days.  It's rhythm, it's organized, it's calmer.  And you reflect on last week and realize this is good.  You let out a sign of relief and smile.  

5)  Work sends you away on a convention.  It's exciting.  You get to network, see your collegues from other cities.  There may be a fun social event or few.  Free time could mean taking off to a mall or market; it's exciting.  It's not a holiday; there is still work to do.  You're often up early, in bed late and you have to be "on" all day, every day of the convention.  There is little time that you have alone.  It is unusual to your routine to be like this.  Once home and back to your daily routine, you enjoy getting ready for work, finding yourself at your desk with a coffee, being quiet, sorting email and catching up with your office friends.  It's a normal that you sure appreciate after a week away from it.

Of course, there are a million examples (okay, may not a million), but you get the idea.  Sometimes normal doesn't seem like anything.  It's vanilla; it's just a straight line of routine.  But, when you compare it to a busy life, a hectic week, a holdiay, then you realize that you crave that normal.  You just can't wait to get back to it.  And when you do; when you find yourself sliding into the warm bed sheets of your own bed, you want to close your eyes and just soak in it.  THAT is the feeling of normal that is SO delicious.  That feeling doesn't come most days.  But coming back it it, from chaos, it tastes so rich and so decadent!!