“It’s not normally like this.”  “It will start coming down any day now.”

Apparently, this is an abnormal winter in Anchorage.  The temperature outside has been above freezing almost all winter.  About once a week I have a friend from Austin say, “It was colder in Texas today.”  Things aren’t normal.

I don’t feel like I have had normal in a long time.  In the last four years I have had seven jobs and four moves.  Normal is not normal.  I am always readjusting.  I find new routines, new hangouts, new social circles.  I’ve been a modern nomad.

But, last week I bought couches.  That’s right, two couches.  I will be sitting down for a while.  Sitting down in one spot.  Normal began when I found a place for my butt.  My butt is happy, but I am slightly apprehensive.  Is this a permanent normal?  Will I have to sell my couches?  In some ways I have felt more anxiety about staying still than any past move.

So, that’s the question for this stage in life right now.  How comfortable am I with normal?  I don’t mean comfortable with the location I am in life right now (my zip code, my car, my church, my town), but that I will put down roots at all.  My family never moved, but my entire twenties have been transient.  This next decade will clash with that, and I have to figure out how to feel about that.

In Alaska it will snow.  Give it time.  It will snow. And then, I will shovel that snow from my steps, sidewalk and driveway.  That’s normal.