Normal doesn’t always mean
nothing is wrong.
Baseline is about what happens when something once unacceptable is allowed to remain for long enough. There is no sudden surrender and no obvious point at which the boundary moves. Instead, repeated exposure quietly resets the standard until what once demanded a reaction barely registers. By the time the narrator recognises the distance travelled, the old baseline has disappeared with nothing left against which to measure the new one.
Things that used to stand out don’t register anymore
Not because they changed, but because I adjusted
What I would have questioned before
Now passes without much thought
There’s no reaction to measure it against
So it just becomes normal
I noticed it
And didn’t act
What used to feel wrong now feels expected
What used to stand out blends into everything else
I don’t track the difference anymore
I just stay where it settles
There’s no clear line between where it changed
Just a point where I stopped comparing it to before
It’s easier not to measure it
Than to admit how far it moved
Nothing pushes back against it now
So it holds
I let it settle
And called it fine
What used to feel wrong now feels expected
What used to stand out blends into everything else
I don’t track the difference anymore
I just stay where it settles
What used to feel wrong isn’t something I notice
There’s nothing left to compare it against
I don’t question it now, I just move through it
Like it’s always been this way