This weekend Anna and I joined most of the rest of my family to support and celebrate the achievement of this wonderful woman in Champaign, IL. Yes, Molly (my sister) completed her first marathon and let me tell you, we were exhausted. I never knew watching a marathon was such work. Regardless of our fatigue, we are SO proud of Molly.After shaking off our spectator's exhaustion we continued west to Normal, IL. I cannot really explain the significance of Normal to those of you who may not be familiar with the town or why it is important to me. In fact, I've been thinking about this blog post for a couple of days now and I still can't seem to articulate what happened there that means so much to me.
I spent 8 years in Normal (age 5-13) which was essentially the bulk of my childhood, and I had not visited in over 10 years. So I've been gone from the place just as long as I lived there. For a couple weeks preceding our visit I was consistently having dreams about Normal and was really excited to visit again.
Once we hit the city limits it was as if I had entered a heavy fog of nostalgia, memories fading in and out of sight. My face pressed to the window I could feel my heart expand with love and comfort and exhale a warm sigh of relief. Home.
I am incredibly grateful for my childhood. It was safe. It treasured my innocence. It encouraged my growth. I was loved. Sure it was not without its challenges, but really I cannot complain.
Normal seems to represent the cherished childhood within my heart and for that I am so thankful.
A Tribute to a few things Normal:
