The older I get and the more people I meet around the country, the more I recognize most all have had significant difficulties in life and for the most part all fall outside of some societal fantasy of happy and normal. This has me wondering what normal is anyway.

As always, the first place I look for answers is the natural environment. It’s normal to have seasonal temperature variations, as well as variations due to altitude and latitude. However, sometimes there are inversions, and it is colder down below than uphigh, so I have to be prepared for the unexpected.

It’s normal for specific plants to grow in specific environments and for certain animals to live within certain vegetative zones, but again sometimes there are deviations from this. When I was on the Florida Trail I saw both a peacock and an emu, neither which belonged in that environment. While I was hiking through acres of burnt out forest on the PNT I saw an extremely emaciated deer which left me wondering what that deer was doing in an area with so little food. I thought about how people sometimes live in extremely harsh environments, such as the Antarctic. But unlike most other mammals, humans have the capacity to bring food with them, which makes them more adaptable.

It’s normal for many stream crossings to be higher in spring when there’s snow melting, but this isn’t always the case and certainly was not what impacted water levels in Florida. There the water levels often depended upon how much rain had recently fallen not only in Florida but also in Georgia which drains a lot of its water into Florida.

I could go on and on noticing some baselines of normality in nature, but that baseline is subject to change, as is seen now due to weather pattern changes across the globe. What I always end up going back to when pondering normalcy is that some of the most normal and constant things are change, difference, and a desire in humans to be recognized and comforted.

Some changes might take millions of years while others happen in the blink of an eye, but I think I can venture to say nothing stays constant. Every trail I’ve been on in my 21,000 miles of hiking has shown me such a plethora of different vegetations, creatures and rock and soil types. I’m sad that so many human have such trouble accepting difference within one another. And I no longer believe that the happy “normality” I saw on TV when I was growing up really exists.

I think it’s normal for most people to want to be seen and recognized although I think certain life experiences leave some not wanting to deal with people and feeling safer when invisible. But no matter a person’s comfort level at being seen, I believe there’s great cruelty to shutting anyone out and pretending they no longer exist. I am trying see each person I meet and reflect back to them something I see as unique about them.

Aging is also part of normal change, as is birth and dying. Fires in the wilderness are also normal, though when ecosystems get out of balance, fires can become more intense.

In the past week, because of a fire that happened in 2022 which still has a part of the PNT officially closed, I’ve been walking an alternate route utilizing the Pacific Crest Trail as well as other trails in the Northern Cascades National Park. I’m about to reconnect with the official PNT and get back to “normal” on that trail, which seems for now to involve varied ecosystems, lots of ups, downs and road walks, and a plethora of blowdowns and overgrown trail. Wish me luck!

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