Dryer Settings

When I was little I read a quote from a Christian comedian that read:

“Normal” is just a setting on the dryer.

I remember my mom getting such a kick out of this saying, but I never understood it. The more I thought about it, the more confused I got.

Now that I’m all growed up, I get it. At least, I’m starting too.

No one…I repeat: NO ONE…is normal. I used to think that my family was at least “normal”. But that was before my mom started believing that the world was going to end soon, getting paranoid about world politics and how they’re taking our freedom away, and how even lighting candles in your home could symbolize “worshiping other idols”. Believing that my friends were “normal” also came before one of my friends left her husband after only 7 months of marriage, before I realized one of my friends is OCD and before another one of my friends told me she has an eating disorder.

Then I though, Ok, well at least the family I married into is normal. But that was right before my hubby’s uncle told us he was a closet alcoholic, we found out that his aunt was being abused, and I got sick to death of my hubby’s Grandma favoring him (if you think this is a good thing…it’s not). And who knows where Hubby and I fit into all this…

No one is normal. No one is plain jane. No one lives the straight and narrow, no matter how much they try. But that’s ok!

Last night Hubby and I talked. I asked him if he was happy with where we were, and he said he was. I’ve been struggling with “us” lately, I told him. And we chatted about why and what we could do to improve things. Life is always throwing us hoops to jump through, and you know what? That’s ok! It’s NORMAL to have problems, it’s NORMAL to struggle with life, it’s NORMAL to have life become a bumpy road!

I’ve discovered lately that life is not “normal”. Or at least, not what we have come to define “normal” as. The definition should be changed to

“Fights with spouse, yells at children, burns dinner, house is never clean, too busy to think, wrinkled laundry, late for soccer…”

And as much as I hate the “fights with spouse, yells at children” part, it’s part of how life goes and it’s after that point that makes life feel gooooood.

Wouldn’t it be just boring to be “normal“?