No Such Thing As Normal
Today is a special day—happy one-year anniversary to the first car that ran into our Northern Vessel coffee shop! If you think my use of the word "first" implies there might be multiple, you'd be correct. Here's what happened:
On the afternoon of Saturday, August 12th of last year, toward the end of a busy day at the shop, a car plowed through our front window. Four people were nearly killed, including two of our full-time employees. Luckily, the injuries weren't severe. We shut down for three days to clean up the blood, glass, and wreckage before re-opening a severely-impaired shop.
For multiple reasons, it took more than seven months to repair the damage and bring a fully operational shop back to life. We were beyond excited when that happened on March 24th of this year, and we were grateful to be back to "normal."
Then, I'll never forget the pit-of-my-stomach feeling I experienced on the morning of May 22nd. I was in the middle of an awesome post-school family vacation in Chicago when I woke up to a text from TJ I prayed I would never see again: "A car ran into the building." And just like that, our lives were turned upside down again. We closed for three days in total before re-opening our again impaired shop.
First crash
Second Crash
As I sit here on the one-year anniversary of the first car crash, we still don't have a fully operational shop. We're getting close. Our front door was installed a few days ago, which really opens up the space. However, we still have a lot of interior work to complete. We'll hopefully be back to "normal" by early September.
To put it another way, our shop has only been "normal" for 59 out of the last 365 days—March 24th until May 22nd. The other 306 days have ranged from chaotic to improvised to compromised.
But that's the thing about "normal." I'd argue that "normal" doesn't really exist outside the perfect little scenario we construct in our imagination. Whether we like it or not, reality is anything but that stable and uneventful concept of "normal" in our brains.
While it's quite abnormal to have two cars crash through a single shop in a nine-month span, there's really no such thing as "normal." Each month, TJ and I talk about looking forward to a "normal" month of operations, only to be surprised by some unforeseen situation that blows up our idea of "normal."
Every aspect of our lives is the same way, including finances. We can expect and prepare for "normal" all we want, but that's not likely how it will play out. Instead, it might be chaotic, improvised, and compromised. For that reason, we must prepare our lives and finances as if "normal" doesn't exist.....because it doesn't. The car will break down. Someone will get sick. The furnace will go out. You'll lose a job. You'll be blessed with a surprise baby! Something!
If "normal" doesn't exist, perhaps we should start planning and acting like it. When we do, it won't be nearly as disheartening, and we'll be prepared for it!
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