Normal SUCKS, or have I said that already :)

Again, I LOVE PBS – DO NOT DOUBT ME ON THIS!!! I LUVS IT!

Anyway, an episode of Nova just aired, in which two little girls, Trishna and Krishna, born connected, destined for certain death, were miraculously cradled into the arms of loving and unbelievably skilled individuals and successfully separated in a 32 hour long marathon surgery, after years of preparation.

Watching the life and story of these girls, their co-guardian, and the doctors themselves intertwine and unfold was literally Awe-Inspiring.

I don’t need to tell you their whole story, you can watch it for yourself online! I will tell you that these little girls where connected by their heads. They shared vital vessels, which took a series of surgeries to sort out. They experienced setbacks and skin stretchings and literally MIRACLE after MIRACLE  in this amazing journey to undo something that God had stitched together.

Now. I am not afraid to tell you that I’m an emotional TV watcher, if you see little girls separated in a 32 hour surgery and don’t bawl your eyes out in joy, then shame on you!
Ha 🙂 Just Kidding.

But Really; that’s what I was doing. I was bawling and cheering and jumping for joy, all the time recognizing that: To Me, this is a fantastic manifestation of the Glory of God. A story told through the intricate, divine weaving of the lives of extraordinary people, cutting edge technology, and a worldwide audience of attention and prayers for these little angels.

As the surgery came to an end, and two beds contained two little healing bodies, and everyone was overjoyed, I was suddenly Dumbstruck, Shocked and Grossed-Out, by one comment spoken by the world-class surgeon who helped make it all possible.

To paraphrase, he said something like: “Now that it’s over, I’ll be so excited to watch them grow up, I can only hope that they are able to live Normal Lives.”

WHAT!! GROSS!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!

Normal?!?!?!?!?!??!!??!!?

Sir, I respectfully raise an opinion that in your exhaustion, you picked an oft-used slang term for Good Life, Great Life, or even Blessed Life. I sincerely hope you didn’t mean Normal!

Impossible! Incomprehensible! Absolutely Absurd!

These two girls, and every person involved with them are (to Me) Living MIRACLES!!

They’ve already touched the hearts and souls of millions of people around the world! They’ve shown more deep down gritty tough strength and resiliency than you get in a whole season of professional football. They’ve magnetized the most elite and focused team of specialists, to gather around them, and perform world-class feats of surgical precision, including one 70 minute duration where a doctor’s only option, was to hold steady the delicate brain of little Krishna in the palm of his hand.

These are not Normal girls, by any stretch of the imagination, and their story is unique for the exact reason that it is in contrast to Normal, thank God!

The Normal World shares it’s problems non-stop these days, Oh, and they are real big ones too. You can find them stinking and crawling, dripping line by line down your friendly neighborhood facebook page. If these two girls were to grow up to be Normal, I certainly would think they would have a little higher appreciation and gratitude than most. In fact people who are products of extreme circumstances have shown a higher ability absorb and project the thankfulness of Life itself.

If a sports team’s performance could ruin their day, they would be normal.

If a careless or slow driver irritates them enough to share their own anger with their world they would be normal.

If just about any small thing, doesn’t go their way, “like it should” (cause that’s how life works… HA!) and “Oh! It Just Sucks!!”… they would be normal.

If they have a completely healthy body, and fill it full of crappy fuel and plop it on the couch, instead of using it as the divinely created machine it was meant to be, they’d be normal.

You can see where I’m going with this, right? 🙂

Fortunately, even after the good doctor’s comments, the girls showed their spirit shining thru, and that they were well on their way to being Spectacular and Outstanding and Extraordinary. Instead of sitting around complaining about all the troubles life threw their way, they were crawling and walking, playing and laughing, learning new exciting things, like how to roll onto a certain side of their body, for the first time in their lives.

Seeing their fantastic resiliency does make you wonder for a minute though. I don’t believe these girls are extraterrestrial specimens of a non-human race. I think they are two special little beings, just like we all once were.

Sure, their path has already taken them to places most any person will never go. But really, in their life before and after the surgery, they were just doing what was natural to them. They were Living. They were playing, they grew and loved and laughed, and that is Normal… in our Youth.

Somewhere along the line, we change. I’ve changed. I know in my heart, that I let the world grab me, and pull me down to Normal, where my “problems” seem to be sprouted up all around me. These little girls remind me that my troubles are tiny in the big picture. They’re also under my control. I get the choice to acknowledge them and suffer from them, or blindly mow ’em over, on my way toward intentionally living the Life I deserve.

Thanks, Trishna and Krishna – your gifts have been recognized and received, at least for today, and your blessings have multiplied and compounded, they’ve spilled over, all the way from Australia to Princeton, Kansas.

Sincerely,

Aaron Nichols

“Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them.”
– R. Buckminster Fuller

PS: I apologize directly to Dr. Tony Holmes, Director of Craniofacial Surgery, for any offense. And I thank him, for the chance to share this story, and my teeny tiny little opinion, with the weirdforgood family. BRAVO, Dr. Holmes Miraculous Work!!