Sunday Story…My World

Is normal to me. In other words, the way and where and how I live makes sense to me and the other people around me. This “default” world is confirmed by the people who share my world.

We often wonder how people live in a war zone or in a jungle without power and running water. Those worlds are normal for those people. Those worlds are confirmed when they look around and see everyone else living in the same manner as everyone else. Where ever you are, there you are.

We define our world as normal. This normality is confirmed by the people around us and the way the world looks. If I live in a religious cult and all of my peers do as well, that becomes my normal, my usual world. If everyone around me speaks Italian and I speak Italian, Italian is what seems normal. When I venture outside my normal world and Italian is not the default, things start getting a little difficult. In many big cities, it is possible to speak a different language than the rest of the city in my little enclave. When it is pointed out that my “default” is not the same as everyone else’s dissatisfaction arises. I want to be normal, I want to fit in, I want to maintain the status quo.

If my anxiety around belonging gets too great I will need to change something. I could change my environment but that is often very difficult. I am stuck in a place, physically. No, what is changeable is me. I can decide that wherever I am is my new normal, my new “default.” And I can count my blessings there and then.

Count. Your. Blessings. Often.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412