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From The Book...'Normal is Just a Setting on Your Dryer' by Patsy Clairmont who also authored "God Uses Cracked Pots" which reminds me of the little story that I put on my first web site about the cracked pot.
""Lord, if only I could be normal like other people!" That was my constant prayer during the years I hid away in my home with agoraphobia (a constricting circle of fears that leaves one housebound). Then I got out of my home, into the flow of people, and found out "ain't nobody normal." Unique: yes. Special: definitely. Normal, no way!
I was peeling tomatoes in my kitchen one day when a friend began to laugh. Surprised, I asked what was so funny.
"I've never seen anyone take the skin off tomatoes before adding them to the salad," she said. She thought that was abnormal.
But when I was growing up, my mom always removed the peel for our guests. She considered it good manners to make things special and convenient for our company. Peeling tomatoes was the norm for us.
I had a neighbor we nicknamed Mrs. Ickity-Pickity because of her seemingly abnormal need to have things clean. We used to laugh because she even washed the soap in her soap dish.
Today I don't think that's strange at all. I find it unappealing to spot a grimy gob of gooey soap stuck in the sink. It is now my normal procedure to follow Mrs. Ickity-Pickitys' example and douse my Dial.
My husband, Les, not only felt that it was normal to rise up early, but he also was certain other people's character was flawed if they didn't leap out of bed at the first glimmer of light. Normal for my family, on the other hand, meant that on days when schedules permitted, a late morning snooze was a treat to be enjoyed. You can imagine the conflict these two - and we - collided.
As an agoraphobic, I felt anything but normal. I didn't know of anyone else who was afraid to go to the grocery store because the aisles seemed to swallow them up. I didn't know of anyone who listened to 30 weather reports a day and then hide under the table from approaching storms. Nor had I talked with anyone who couldn't ride in elevators or stay alone at night. Then when I had to give up driving because of panic attacks, I knew I was hopelessly abnormal.
Yet, if you could coax agoraphobics into a room together, there would be a 'normalcy' among us in that our behavior would match in many ways. Just goes to show - normal is only a setting on a dryer.
I believe abnormal is normal. Think about it - consider your friends, great people but don't they have some pretty curious ways? Abnormal is not an isolated occurrence but a constant reoccurrence. It's something we share in common... our differences.
I kept trying to attain normalcy by being what I thought others thought I should be. How exhausting! Everyone seems to have his or her own definition of my normal, leaving me feeling like an isolated emotional abnormality.
That's what this book is about - emotions and how they affect and infect our lives and our need for a healthy balance. We'll look at a variety of emotions and how, if we deny them, we end up out of balance, and yet if we indulge them, our pendulum swings too far the other way.
This isn't a book on how to be normal. (I haven't figured that out yet.) Rather, it's an encouragement to be the best "us" we can. We think we know ourselves so well, yet we find our emotions often mysterious. And sometimes our emotions surprise and overwhelm us.
You may experience different feelings in response to those stories of others who struggle, fail, start over, and celebrate. You'll see that life is seldom a simple as setting your dryer to normal. And my prayer is that you might laugh, cry, think, remember, and come to understand yourself better as you move through the pages of this book."
Okay.... that was the first Chapter but speaking of cracked pots....
here's the little inspirational story I mentioned earlier...
"Cracked Pots"
A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.
For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his master's house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.
After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you."
Why?" asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?" I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said.
The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path."
Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again it apologized to the bearer for its failure.
The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table.
Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house."
Moral: Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are, and look for the good in them. There is a lot of good out there. There is a lot of good in you! Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.
Remember to appreciate all the different people in your life! Or as I like to think of it--if it hadn't been for the crackpots in my life, it would have been pretty boring and not so interesting...
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