Finding a New Normal

With COVID-19, life has been anything but normal. Its power and devastation have built, as it sweeps across the globe, the way hurricanes do.

Upon the arrival of this invisible, yet deadly virus, Americans have been forced to live in the unknown world of uncertainty. What we know today isn’t what we will know tomorrow, and what we’re allowed to do today isn’t what we will be allowed to do next week. Our freedoms have been put aside to protect those we love.

The truth is there are several incidents in life, that force us to search for a new normal. In death or loss, and in natural disasters, we stop living the way we previously did. As familiar emotions resurfaced recently, I realized their similarity to life after the Joplin, Missouri tornado in 2011.

A rain-wrapped EF-5 tornado drug itself for almost a mile with its extra width, before deciding it had caused enough havoc to its innocent victims. Like many disasters, God was in the midst, as we would learn for months to come. However, our world would never be the same again.

Tragedies catapult us into a search to find a new normal.

1. As with any loss, we will eventually wake up from the fog of shock and disbelief, God placed in us as a protective mechanism. We are then cognizant of the fact we are glued to radios, TV’s, or news apps on our phones to learn what is going on. We try to wrap our minds around something unnatural; something we don’t want to accept. 
2. Soon, awareness begins to return the way the feeling in our mouth does after numbing shots wear off. When it does, we find ourselves getting moodier, turning off the news more often, and withdrawing from friends and family to cope. 
3. Chatter returns as people need to process the new changes in their lives. Everyone has thoughts, opinions, and suggestions to share at every opportunity in person, over the phone, and online. 
4. Coping skills, or actually implementing the changes, come next. It could be clean-up after a disaster, finding new medicines and health-care workers for someone with a serious medical condition, like cancer or severe car accident requiring rehabilitation, or adapting to working at home, with COVID-19. 
5. Next, appreciation and confusion, turn into anger and frustration. Brains are overwhelmed trying to cope with so many changes made in such a short time period. In other words, our “forgetters” are working overtime, leaving us exhausted and unmotivated. 
6. Individual reactions will emerge as some will be doers and problem-solvers, while suicide rates rise with others. Creatives will produce captivating art, entertaining stories, new songs, or entertainment. Some try to figure out ways to keep their businesses afloat on their own, while ones like Ford Motor dives in to create ventilator parts. Colleges create labs or test kits, like OSU and KU did. Sports teams unite to raise money, use their planes to bring masks here from China, or help hospitals in their neighborhoods.

In the end, every individual has to find their new normal.

They have to adjust, because things will never again be the same. Those expecting things to go back the way they were, will fight depression. Those who flex and bend; will overcome.

In the Joplin tornado, a main hospital was obliterated, along with many doctor’s offices. They lost several major businesses. It took extra time to learn if we would be doing without these services, or find new locations; much like now, learning what is essential and all the new rules that change from day to day or week to week.

Eventually, the overwhelming part dissipated, but reminders of the devastation lay all around. Many families will be moving forward without some of their family members who succumbed to COVID-19.

Yes, permanent changes were made to get accustomed to. Our future now will also have certain changes, leaving fingerprints that COVID-19 pandemic had struck. I’m kind of curious how many businesses will keep some positions working at home. Will the education system develop more permanent online schooling, or a combination thereof? What about the medical field? New systems of distribution, research, and manufacturing will be prepared for the next virus.

We can never go back, but we can glean the benefits of what we’ve learned during this time of uniting in isolation (talk about an oxymoron). We can quit looking for things to be the way they were, and focus on letting God guide us to future pleasant surprises, we will call our new normal.

© 2021, Jena Fellers. All rights reserved.