Most of us experience times of chaos in our lives; maybe not the life shattering kind of chaos, but periods of uncertainty, confusion, change, and ambivalence. These are inevitable features of life; however, for a long time I have tried to avoid this chaos by trying to map out my life. I plan, prepare, budget, schedule and engage in other activities suited for the anal retentive.Unlike the spontaneous thrill seekers out there, I love order and predictability. Despite my efforts to avoid chaos, it still found me! As of late, I have daydreamed about living on a mountaintop or fleeing to some foreign country like India or Thailand to live with Buddhist monks to escape the stress of life. I stumbled across an article the other day that pointed me in a different direction. It was called, “The Case for Chaos”. It talked briefly about philosophies of Taoism and chaos theory that made me look at things a little differently. The author stated that real, abiding stress relief lay in embracing chaos. There is a “way” of the natural world, an organizing principle of the universe that just is and can’t be fought. When we become comfortable with not being in control, the chaos loses its grip. I still have my idea of how I’d like things to turn out, and I will still plan, but I will not be like they said in the article so “inflexibly attached” to these ideas or plans. A great line from the article said, “Don’t mistake predictability for peace: some of life’s most important moments are born of chaos.” Ambivalence is the place of both discomfort and possibility. Confusion is at the cusp of new insight. So amidst all my uncertainty and confusion I also feel now that I am at the cusp of something great! So although life can be a little messy sometimes....embrace the chaos!
Beautifully said. Love this.
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