Go Ahead and SCREAM!

"Am I normal? Please, tell me that I am normal."

I couldn't because what she described to me wasn't normal.

No, it's not normal to feel alone and anxious for months on end. It's not normal that fears take over your body. It's not normal to be in a constant state of worrying about not being normal. In short, not normal.

"It's not normal."

"That bothers me, makes me even more anxious."

I wasn't going to just tell her what she wanted to hear, but I explained.....

"Let's say that I hit my hand hard on the door. The hand now throbs with pain. It's normal, right? But it's NOT normal to have a throbbing hand.

Meaning it's normal to feel anxious, nervous, worried and alone when going through certain difficult situations, challenging times. It's normal to feel grief at the loss of a loved one, the end of a relationship. It's normal. But a state of grief, a state of depression, a constant state of anxiety or pain. That is not normal and when we tell ourselves, "It's normal" to the extent that we don't want to examine it, work on it, get help for it, or even accept what it really is, then we don't allow ourselves to ever heal. To ever come to peace with it. Yes, instead we live with a throbbing pain thinking that throbbing pain is normal.

It's not.

So we were enslaved in Egypt for over 200 years! We were treated horrifically! And then came a cry, a groan, a scream. A totally normal reaction. You are in pain, you cry. Normal. The redemption process then started.

Why?

Because we finally understood that suffering is not normal. Being in a state of disconnect is not normal. Pain is not a sign of normal, even when it is understandable and indeed normal.

And when that knee jerk reaction of screaming when being hit becomes a directed cry out for help, "HASHEM HELP!!! THIS IS NOT NORMAL!" Then G-d willing the healing will come, the salvation.

May we all cry out for the "not normal" and may that crying bring about a return to "normal" soon.