Normal Days

In a time when I may start to forget what a “normal day” looks like, this, written by Mary Jean Irion, resurfaced and reminded me that my appreciation of normal days should not be limited to times when there aren’t any.  The mental list of “normal” things I currently long for is growing by the day.  I wonder if I’ll have the sense to remember and appreciate that when things “return to normal?”

“A normal day.  Holding in my hand this one last moment, I have come to see it as more than an ordinary rock.  It is a gem, a jewel.  In time of war, in peril of death, people have dug their hands and faces into the earth and remembered this. In time of sickness and pain, people have buried their faces in pillows and wept for this.  In time of loneliness and separation, people have stretched themselves taut and waited for this.  In time of hunger, homelessness, and want, people have raised bony hands to the skies and stayed alive for this….

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are.  Let me learn from you, love you, savor you, bless you before you depart.  Let me not pass by you in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.  Let me hold you while I may, for it will not always be so.  One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands into the sky, and want more than all the world your return.  And then I will know what I am guessing; that you are, indeed, a common rock and not a jewel, but that a common rock made of the very mass substance of the earth in all its strength and plenty puts a gem to shame.

The day is over and now I will sleep.”