The New New Normal

I fall into bed early, not because I will be headed off to work for midnight, but because, after an actual night's sleep, I will be headed off to work in the morning. There is a glimmer of what my life once was--early morning rehearsals, and multiple alarms to make sure I got up for them, commuting with the rest of the world, rather than against it. It is amazing how readily our systems adapt to something new, and turn the old into just a glimmer. In just a handful of months, my body and brain have come to believe that night is the time to work and day the time to sleep, despite years to the contrary. In just a handful of months, routines have changed and abnormal has become, well, normal. But I guess that is how we manage every change--it is how our kids survive the transition from preschool to kindergarten and from high school to college. It is how we survive the evolution from coupledom to parenthood to empty nest. We adapt because we have to, because life throws us changes. And if we don't adapt--our sleep schedules, our perceptions, our expectations--we will simply be battered each day.

So tonight, I sleep early again so that tomorrow, I can wake up early. And I remind myself not to worry so much about what is normal. Because whatever is normal today certainly won't be by next week.