What – or who – is the New Norm L?
From “Reversal of Fortune”, 1990 –
Alan Dershowitz : You are a very strange man. Claus von Bülow : You have no idea.
So … why the name? Well, I am Norm … and I wasted too much of my life trying to be someone I wasn’t – “normal”. Don’t we all? So, since my last name starts with L, after my “very strange” life brought me to this point, I decided – I was going to let go of what didn’t work, focus on just being – or, more accurately, becoming – NormL, and just find the courage and strength to be the best me I can be. After spending most of my life trying to be someone I was not, I am becoming the person I could have been all along. For all those years, I was chasing the wrong rainbow! But as I hope you will see as I share here, it is NEVER TOO LATE!!!
My life is VERY different now. And I am loving it! I am in my 60’s, retired now (earlier than planned), and for the past decade in particular I have gone through a lot of changes. In fact, sometimes I want to push “pause” on all the changes, but – nope. Time marches on, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. So in some ways, this blog as all about helping – ME! And hopefully, YOU! Getting through change is something ALL OF US are having to deal with, especially now – maybe there is something in my misadventures that you can add to your toolkit in this era. We are all in this together!
You will see honesty in my posts – maybe more than some might like, but without openness and authenticity, we water down our truths. Honesty is SO critical to getting through this crazy world. Self honesty, in particular. I wasn’t honest for most of my life, because … I was afraid. Afraid I would not be loved, or accepted. That started very early in my family, like perhaps many of you, and I learned to hide – to be safe. The more I was like what I was supposed to be, the deeper I buried myself. We all have feelings of being “different”, not “enough”, and yes, not loved. A lot of what I share here will be about the process that has taken me a lifetime, to be self accepting, to learn to also accept others.
But I also want to share my adventures here – past and present and future. I moved to San Francisco in 2017, got married in 2018 to a wonderful husband, went through even more unexpected changes in the year plus since then, and am exploring my new home. I love history, and I am devoting time to exploring and documenting my own family history, so that will be shared here as well. I love movies, storytelling, music, the beauty of our created world, and … many of you visiting here!
I need to be clear, I respect that not everyone has the same worldview – thank God! And I do work on that .. I believe in a loving creator, and although I readily, emphatically and totally agree that organized religions have created a lot of damage in many ways … I also know that faith has created a lot of good in our world. I don’t pretend to have the answers, in fact I think letting go of wanting answers is an important part of being our best selves – but I do see life through a framework of a larger reality, one I don’t understand but that exists nevertheless. So, hopefully you can live with that as I share here, because – it’s me! We are all in the same boat, all hopefully growing – let’s journey together in respect.
As my husband Bob says, “Welcome to Norm’s world”. I hope you get something from your visit. I will do my best to make you feel at home. Normal is overrated – be yourself, if there is one lesson I continue to be reminded of in life, it is this – the best gift you have to offer to our world is your truest, most authentic self. I will try to offer that here.
The New NormL 