Yesterday, especially towards the late afternoon and into the evening, I didn’t feel “normal”.
Frankly, I don’t know what normal really means – it’s an entirely relative term. So I suppose I didn’t feel normal in respect to how I’ve been feeling the last few months…which means that my basis of comparison has become my mood in quarantine…which is a little unnerving.
It’s extraordinary what the mind can normalize. It’s probably a very primal coping mechanism; unless you can adjust to a new reality, there’s no way you can survive. And what seemed unthinkable at one point becomes ordinary at another.
I thought about the first week or so of lockdown, when my mind couldn’t wrap itself around what was happening, and my mind now, which contemplates the unfathomable changes that have happened as a matter of course. Does simple acceptance of a decidedly unexpected situation make it normal?
What does normal mean to you?
My task: So…the reason I was feeling so strange yesterday is that I forgot to take my afternoon meds. I hadn’t filled my weekly pill organizer on Sunday as I usually do, so I was kind of winging it yesterday, and in the busy-ness of the day I forgot. Lesson learned. This afternoon I filled my organizer (done!)
Coronavirus Diary: Mental Health in a strange new world 
Maestra Sarah,
I think the term normal is a concept who vary from one person to another one. I also humbly think it is multifactorials (culture, genes, personal experiences, adaptation, coping mechanism,…).
Normal for me is simply to be able to live in peace with myself (emotions and feelings).
Our world will always change and resistance to change will break you one day or another one. It is better to be like a plant who curves when there is some wind instead of resisting straight up and then breaks.
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Sarah, What I like best about your blogs in “Sarah’s Coronavirus Diary,” is the deep and intimate conversations about feelings, challenges, friendship, family, and living in quarantine. We seek validation for our actions and think to be accepted we must conform to normal, which is one of the most misconstrued words in the dictionary. Normalcy to me is purely conceptual and open to innumerable definitions, depending on who you ask and where you live.
I find it fascinating having conversations with people from around the globe as we seek to find a mutual ground of interest and sharing our experiences both good and bad in the mood swings of life. Our unprecedented global pandemic has opened a myriad of emotions for all of us and uncertainty and fear take precedence. While some are fortunate to maintain a busy schedule and finding challenges and self-worth, others have their calendar filled with flotsam and jetsam from their conception of normalcy in this enormous storm and the title wave of change.
This is a time for unity with friends, relatives, neighbors, and co-workers to show our compassion, understanding, and love for each other in coping with the future. Words matter and it’s our choice how we use them.
We are defined not merely on words alone but by the merits of our actions.
W
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