I called and talked to my mom today. I usually call her when I’m needing to talk through something important and I’m seeking advice or a second opinion. Somewhere in the conversation she pushed back a little when I used the phrase about something not being normal. “Where did you get that idea from?”, she asked. I at first thought she was meaning something more like how Jesus said that in this life there will be trouble.

And she kind of was. “But”, I said, that doesn’t mean we just don’t do anything to help ourselves or ask for help if there is some sort of way to potentially get it. Her point was it was normal to be dealing with something. There is the woman at church with degenerative, and at times debilitating, Meniere’s disease. And the woman who suffers from chronic migraines. And the man who needed surgery for his kidney problems.

How many more do we not even know of? It’s baffling to think about. And even though I know that human life is riddled with way more than even the multitude of physical problems, you just don’t always see those things. But they are out there. We reviewed the handful of things that I have known to have been helpful for me in the past, and she encouraged me to be consistent with those things, those basic things. I agreed to that.