Laughing in the face of normality

I'm celebrating today. It's my 8 year wedding anniversary (Happy Anniversary to my wonderful hubby x) and I'm also celebrating my departure from normality. 

What is normal anyway? Well the dictionary says normal is "conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected." Well I'm not happy with that definition! So why am I displeased? I met a friend out walking today, I told him about my latest cancer news, he told me about his problems. He didn't feel quite right, not normal. He struggled to use the word depressed in the same way I struggle to say cancer. Chatting helped. It helped him to see that his feelings are to be completely expected given his current life changes. It made him feel, dare I say, more normal. 

It is past time that we compare ourselves to this fake notion of normal...there really is no such thing. Normal leads to exclusion and labelling.  Our norms are shaped by our cultures and nudged along by media, current trends, business, law, etc. What is normal in one culture could be seen as dysfunctional or abnormal in another. And yes of course,  while definitions of normal help us to discuss how we expect people to interact with us, or help a doctor plan treatment, these definitions should never serve to exclude, which they more frequently do.

This is why raising awareness is important to me. Not just about cancer but about health, emotions, feelings. When we hide behind our masks, when we don't talk, discuss, learn, we become ignorant of what is really normal, that there is no real normal. If we could only spend 5 minutes each day talking to your friends, family, colleagues, neighbours, telling them how you really feel, not judging yourself or them but just accepting, we would slowly come to realise that we are all the same really. We are all just getting by in this crazy world.