Incredibly Normal Summer Days.

Life can be incredible.

And sometimes life can be incredibly normal.

I'm in one of those incredibly normal seasons of life. My day's consist of long trips to the library, listening to online lectures, filling out study guides, checking out books, writing essays, and ordering piles of books off Amazon. When I'm not in the library, I'm babysitting two middle-schoolers, taking them to the beach, helping them with homework, doing their laundry, and picking up their granola bar wrappers. Shopping right now only consists of groceries and gas for my tank and the occasional cup of coffee. Life seems incredibly normal.

The constant beat of normal days is sometime anesthetizing, and make them fly by quickly. I feel as if woke up this morning and realized July is half gone, having fallen asleep thinking summer was just beginning.

Now, don't get me wrong. This is not a complaint. There is nothing wrong with normal. In fact, there is something incredibly right about being incredibly normal. While normal makes the days spin faster, normal days create a rhythm to pace your heart by; normal sets the gait by which we mark change, growth, and adventure. It is steady and rhythmic and measured.

And that is what is wonderful about normal.

Normal makes this afternoon's trip to the beach with Austin a celebratory event, and his co-worker's generous offer to use her beach pass a valued gift.

Normal makes Anne's day off an unexpected blessing, and long morning and late night conversations rich and savored.

Normal makes lunch with old friends gratefully refreshing.

Normal makes babies' voices in the library laughable, and their shushing parents a hilarious sight.

Normal makes mail (the old-fashioned, envelope-and-stamp-in-my-mailbox kind) a sweet surprise, especially when it's from a funny little sibling of mine.

Perhaps I have found the place where incredibly and normal intersect.

Every moment. Every book. Every paper. Every conversation. Every trip to the beach.

Incredibly normal.

And, sometimes, simply incredible.