I wrote 52 weeks of COVID Diaries. It is time to retire it, as I did the Cannabis Diaries last year. It has me thinking about what normal means.

We can deal with different types of normalcy. Normal now means spending days on my top floor staring out of the window while I work. It was previously a place I watched TV after the kids went to bed. Normal means having no dog any more, as she goes off to sniffer dog training – no more picking up poo, no more having someone to watch her to prevent dog menace around the house. No more, “where’s the dog (in relation to the food)?!”

Normal means looking forward to cherry blossom season after last year’s blessing, the pink vividness still burning my retinas when I close my eyes. It means considering the cost benefit analysis of wearing a mask to go into a shop; or just walking on by. Normal is to barely deal with the weather at all. It is making our own coffee each day now, upgrading our coffee grinder and moka pots; and rarely buying it at all. Normal is knowing people differently, without ever having met them; and feeling close to colleagues from afar. Normal is Tik Tok as TV, and the downgrade of other apps like IG. Goodbye Facebook completely, except for getting rid of things from the garage. Normal is spending more time in the garage, recycling.

Normal is school, or not, it depends. Normal is health complaints. It is the power of video; and you’re on mute. It is doubling down on technology to solve our challenges. Normal is finally thinking about how to turn ideas into action and be more entrepreneurial. It is finally writing the book. It is doing more art, and thinking about NFTs. Normal is normal politics, about which I don’t need to much care.

Normal is dealing with the family, reacquainting and reworking. It is thinking about the family more – those far away, unseen. Normal is less speed, more noticing, more gratitude for small things, for health, for small kindnesses, for community.

I am beginning to wonder what the next normal will be once COVID dissipates. Let’s move things forward.

This Much We Know.