Life is crazy. Maybe it’s just me, but sometimes it seems like chaos comes in like tidal waves; bigger and bigger until – Boom! – you find yourself in a new phase of life. The vortex of chaos in my life right now is at a level that I could have never imagined. The weather is chaotic, my tiny little hometown is chaotic (that’s another story), my music world is changing so fast it makes me dizzy. And it doesn’t end there. In fact, the vortex just seems to spin faster each day. Some amazing new life phase is coming – that’s the only interpretation I can see. But it is STRESSFUL. Holy cow, is it stressful! In a rare moment of calm here is what came to me…
The key is to let the chaos come. If you are in a mess, there is no cleaning it up without getting naked, cold and exposed. That thing that won’t go away. That issue, pain, injustice. That specter in the room that won’t leave you in peace. You have to face them, stand against them, let them ignore you, let them laugh at you, let them fight you. And then, as Gandhi says, you win.
The chaos will come in ever more powerful waves. Surging, spinning up like a tornado of uncertainty. Fear of the unknown has you tied up in knots. Everything converges. More uncertain than ever and BOOM! It explodes in the most chaotic day or week you have known. And in an instant… It’s gone. All of it. Gone the chaos and uncertainty because it is settled. Gone the pain and injustice because even if you didn’t win, you fought. And gone the ghost. All that remains in the settled dust is peace, quiet and the sense of a new life phase just starting.
So let the chaos come. Welcome it with the warmth reserved for the most loyal of friends. Breathe it in and let it fill your soul with the promise of peace to come. Float, taken by the ocean of chaos, with your face tilted joyfully up to the ever present light of truth; knowing that even when the biggest of waves pull you under, you can still breathe. And then, rest. Deposited softly on the sands, sit up gingerly. Look around you, and take calm joy in this newfound peaceful shore.
I’m not sure it makes it any easier to weather the storm of chaos that precedes each new life phase but it is perspective nonetheless. : )
Love,
KC
