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All we hear about lately is our “new normal”, and how we’re learning to adapt to our world with COVID-19. And I’ll admit it’s taking some time getting used to it all: waiting in a 6-foot-spaced-out line and wearing a mask just to get groceries; searching to no avail for toilet paper; or, most importantly, watching in horror as the news reports how many lives have been taken by this virus each day. If anyone had told us at the beginning of March that this would be our reality right now, we would have thought they were kidding. Yet here we are in our new normal.

Just as I thought I was starting to adjust, we suddenly had to say goodbye to our sweet girl, Billie Holiday. We rescued her when she was just a 4-month-old pup (we rescued Jack just a few months later), and she was just 6 weeks away from her 14^th birthday when her tired body gave out. My world was shattered. Even though I knew she wouldn’t live forever, I wasn’t prepared for life without her… So when I was looking at our family picture my dad took of us on Mother’s Day – and it was just Chad, Jack, and me – I realized that this too is our new normal.

This also gave me the perspective that our lives are full of “new normals” – both good and bad, big and small. Moving, getting married, having children, getting a new job; getting divorced, losing a job, losing a loved one; war, 9/11, mass shootings, coronavirus…. Our lives and the world are always changing, yet through the good and the bad we always find a way to adapt.  So, while this is an unprecedented time, we can remind ourselves of everything we’ve adjusted to already, and try to navigate this new normal together.