Chaos and Order

Chaos and order are the ruling energies of the universe, the twin partners of progress. At our best we live in continuous chaos and we seek ongoing order. Chaos represents the daily ups and downs, new and unexpected events, emotional turnarounds and surprises that come our way hour after hour. Chaos is obvious if we suddenly find ourselves in a system wide traffic lights failure in a traffic jam during peak drive hours. Order is everywhere as well, but we seldom stop to notice. The same traffic jam has been thought through and there are stop signs and traffic lights that actually do work most of the time, yellow lines and crosswalks, all of which put order into our driving.

We have (controlled) chaos chopping onions and mixing the cheese into the macaroni, and order is restored when the dishes are done and dripping in the drainer. A higher order is achieved once the dishes are dried and put back in the cabinet, only to turn back to chaos for the next dinner's use.

There's a degree of chaos even writing a blog post. First, ideas circulate in the mind. Then inspiration dries up and a panic of chaotic proportions might set in. And then we start to write, go back and edit, and re-edit, and order arises into a (we hope) somewhat cohesive message.

The good news is that neither the chaos nor the order is permanent. We are asked to keep awake and on our toes to find and face the chaos and then do the same to find and utilize the order, only to surrender the brilliant solution to the next inevitable problem. The key words are impermanance and awake. The joy of life is in that awareness of being in the middle of both the chaos and the order. It's a dance, and need not be taken seriously.