Long before the start of this blog, journaling was a habit in our home.  There is something therapeutic about putting one’s thoughts on paper.  Tonight, Will & I had a lengthy discussion about our current situation and our plans for the future; about what we think is important and what’s not.  It reminded me of this journal entry from May 2006 - back when our intentional pursuit of simple living was relatively new.

When we decided to live with my parents, I was afraid of what people would think … that it was not “normal” for a woman and her husband and two children to sell their perfect home and choose to live with her parents for no obvious reason other than they wanted to. In the long run, there will be no great financial gain.  In fact, there will be some loss as far as selling the house goes but still it seems like the right thing to do.  And then I ran across this quote by Ellen Goodman.

Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.

That’s when I decided that “normal” is not something I want to pursue and it is not something I want to teach my children to pursue. I want “unconventional” to be the defining factor of our family.

What about you?  Are you “normal”?  Are you chained in by society’s should’s and should not’s or do you find comfort and safety in them?  This unconventional way of living works for us but would perhaps be stressful and unfulfilling to others.  What say you?  Define: “Normal.”