The new “normal”

I’ve been thinking about that phrase “the new normal” that people are using a lot recently.

It’s normal that the first thing that wakes me up in the mornings these days is the disconcerting scent of bushfire smoke seeping into my nostrils.

It’s normal that the first thing I see in the morning when I look out the window is Sydney covered by a grey haze as an orange sun tries to pierce through.

It’s normal for me to see people wearing masks as they walk to work in my neighbourhood.

It’s normal to think carefully about whether staying home is wiser rather than going out and risking getting sick from the smoke.

It’s normal to check before going on a long drive whether there is bush, danger, fires around where you are going.

It’s normal to hear someone say “this looks apocalyptic”.

So many new normals. Do we adjust?

Do we push back and cry “no” to the new normal?

Sometimes we can feel so powerless at times like this. As we struggle to adjust emotionally and psychologically to this change, let’s push back on the things we can do to stop this “new normal”.

But let’s also speak hope into one another. Hope that we can do daily acts of love, justice, mercy and kindness in the little patches we have each been called to steward.

Hope that these acts can shift our perspective and encourage us to keep believing that transformation for the better can happen in our society.

Karina Kreminski with her husband Armen Kavakian are a husband-and-wife team committed to loving their local neighbourhood and seeing it flourish. They believe that God is active in the neighbourhood as much as in the church. Neighbourhoods matter. Visit their website here.