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It Is Not Always Easy to Find Love at the Center

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We gather in covenant to celebrate the reality that love is at the core of our beings

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Ericka Hewitts book - sparks of wonder has a section on Chaos

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Ericka Hewitts book - sparks of wonder has a section on Chaos

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Malcolm Gladwell on Embracing Creative Chaos - Creativity at Work

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Creativity and innovation consulting, training, and coaching

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And chaos seems to be the only goal

When fear and anxiety take hold

And the future seems so bleak and cold

Be the calm in the chaos, my friend

Let your steady heart and mind transcend

The noise and confusion, the storms and the rain

And find the peace that lies within

It's not about ignoring the pain

Or pretending that everything's okay

It's about holding on to hope and faith

And finding a way to rise above the fray

Be the calm in the chaos, my love

Let your inner light shine from above

Offer a helping hand, a shoulder to lean

And be the strength that others need to glean

For in the midst of turmoil and strife

It's the calm presence that brings new life

It's the power of love and compassion

That can heal even the deepest of fractures

So let us be the calm in the chaos

And let our spirits shine like the sun

For in this troubled world, we live in

It's the light that will guide us to overcome.

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An Inspired Poem: Be the Calm in the Chaos

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When the world is spinning out of control And chaos seems to be the only goal When fear and anxiety take hold And the future seems so blea...

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What Chaos Theory Can Teach Us About Life Transitions

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What Chaos Theory Can Teach Us About Life Transitions

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For as long as I can remember, I've had a fascination with the unknown. As a kid, I can remember hours spent listening to a tape my aunt had given me for my birthday that told the adventures of "Jonathan's Space Odyssey", some pre-recorded narrative that likely records thousands of kids names, and swaps them into a story of deep space exploration to make them feel unique.

I didn't mind. I was endlessly curious about the cosmos, and dreamed of being an astronaut. It helped that my father, who had worked on some of the early Apollo missions at NASA, knew a thing or two about the topic and was all too willing to indulge my curiosity with long tales of exploration.

While I never ended up becoming an astronaut (it looked way too hard) or launching into space (yet), I still feel something light up inside of me every time I face, or even think, of a journey into the unknown. It's an addictive combination of dopamine and adrenaline-fueled curiosity that has driven most of my adult decisions.

As a result, I've gone through my fair share of transitions in life. I've switched careers, and often entire industries, every few years. I've worked as a foreign correspondent in conflict zones and an office manager cleaning toilets; an employee at multiple startups to eventually founding a few of my own. I've sought a life rich in experience, high in expectations, and driven by a pursuit of understanding, not necessarily a singular outcome. I never wanted to be the best at anything; I simply wanted to do things differently.

I gravitated away from traditional career paths not because I hate having a boss (though true), or because I can't sit still in an office from 9-5 (also true), but mainly because I hated the idea of generally knowing where those paths could take me. A promotion, a corporate ladder, a pension. It all felt too predictable. There was nothing about it that fueled that fire of curiosity inside of me.

While the apple fell pretty far from the tree in terms of my actual scientific understanding, I like to think that my life - and in fact many of our lives - follows a similar trajectory as Chaos Theory, a mathematical theory that attempts to explain how complex and seemingly unpredictable systems (like the universe and weather patterns) have behaviors that can, in principle, be predicted. Within their apparent randomness, there are always underlying patterns, feedback loops, and elements self-organization that are determined by an initial set of conditions or moment in time.

The further from the initial point or moment a "chaotic" system evolves, the more unpredictable the path becomes. The Butterfly Effect is a perfect example - a butterfly flaps its wings in Wichita, and through a series of chain reactions it could cause a tornado in India years later. It seems impossible to predict, but in theory it could be predicted. There are just too many variables and possibilities to account for along the way.

Our lives follow a similar path. We are brought into this world with a foundation of values, beliefs, principles, experiences, and an innate inertia based off those elements. To me, that's our "initial condition".

As we move through life, even though we often feel more settled, the reality is the possibilities of what we can become are actually increasing. Every new day and every new decision - from what we have for breakfast to whom we marry - holds infinite realm of possibilities that become harder and harder to predict based on our initial condition.

Facing such an insane amount of uncertainty can be daunting. Sure, we could just resign to the fact that we'll never know what's going to happen next in our lives. Or, we can take a different approach.

Like Chaos Theory, this approach is a formula rooted in time.

When I reflect back on what's allowed me to transition so frequently and find myself so comfortable with the unknown, it's a personal strategy I've developed over the years that I call the three-month rule of transition.

It's helped me when quitting jobs, switching careers, or when I've simply reached a point where I have no idea "what's next", and perhaps it may be of similar help to you. It doesn't always have to be three months, but that's just what works for me.

Three Month Rule of Transition

How to slow down, and give yourself enough time to embrace the unknown.

1. Define your personal runway

In the startup world, "runway" is really just a fancy term for "the time you have until your ass is broke."

If you've just quit your job, are changing careers, or are going through some major transition, consider yourself a startup. You are trying something new, chartering new territory for yourself, and diving into the unknown with the hope that you'll come out on the other end richer - professionally, personally, and perhaps even financially.

So, you have to define your personal runway. To live your current lifestyle, how many months can you afford to not work? If you tone down your lifestyle (ex. skip the bars, because beer is cheaper from the corner store...), how many more months can that buy you? If you pack up your apartment, sublet your room, hit the road, stay with friends... how much more time can that buy you?

In the end, your personal runway should come down to what are you most comfortable with, and what are you willing to change, to give yourself the time you need to discover what's next?

This is usually better to define before you take a leap and decide on making your move. But sometimes life doesn't always work out that nicely, and the greatest plans fail. So be realistic with yourself.

I've always aimed to have at least 6 months of "basic quality of life" in reserve. So I cut that in half, and give myself three months to go through an intentional period of transition.

2. Month One: Accept The Chaos. Do What Feels Good

The goal of your first month is simple: Do not commit to anything. Every morning when you wake up, do what feels right. Give yourself permission to have zero expectations of yourself. No deadlines. No requirements. Simple in theory, yes. But challenging in practice. In your mind, it will feel like absolute chaos. Embrace it. Accept it. Be impulsive, and explore as many of the things you've wanted to try as possible.

If you wake up one morning and want to paint, go paint. If you feel like going to the circus, go to the circus. Feeling creative? What about that book idea you had a year ago - write a few pages and see what happens. Feeling restless? Go for a bike ride, or try that weird sport you've always wanted to try. Feel like eating ice cream for breakfast? Seriously. Just go for it. Invest in what makes you feel good, feel alive, and feel happy. Even if it's a little self-indulgent. It's only a month.

The key here is to absolve any expectations of a sense of progress. Go with the flow. Experiment, and enjoy a month without any intended outcome.

3. Month Two: From Chaos Comes Clarity

The first month will seem like chaos. Ideally, you'll be having fun, but it will probably feel aimless, directionless, and purposeless. That's because it is. Your only purpose was to give yourself permission to live a month without a clear sense of purpose.

As you enter your second month, the goal is to begin focusing inwards on yourself. To reflect on where you've been, what's important to you, and what you're looking to get more of in life.

When you reflect on your first month, what did you find yourself enjoying most? What patterns can you find in your behavior of what you gravitated to? When you look back beyond the past month, what other patterns can you see?

If you look deeply at all of the seemingly disconnected and chaotic parts of your life, and all of the things you enjoy doing - physically, mentally, spiritually - there are always underlying patterns you can begin to detect. But you need to give yourself time to explore them, to connect the dots.

The second month of your transition journey should be about recognizing and mapping your own patterns and trends. Find the themes. For example, if you've found yourself constantly moving, outside, and active, perhaps your work and life need to be designed around more physical movement - and not sitting at a desk for 12 hours a day.

As you go through the month, still exploring and trying new things, work to create buckets or themes around things you enjoy. Don't just think about the "thing" you enjoy, but the "process" behind that thing.

I'll give you one example from my own life. I was a journalist for several years. I enjoyed journalism, but it wasn't my true passion. What I found when I stopped "working" as a journalist, was that I enjoyed the process of being a journalist much more than the industry itself. That is, traveling, meeting new people, hearing their stories, crafting narratives, and sharing those stories with new audiences. My passion wasn't the profession of journalism. It was the process of learning and sharing new perspectives. It was a theme of discovery.

By the end of your second month, you should aim to have 3-5 themes that resonate with you, and can serve as conditions or constraints for what you want to do next.

4. Month Three: The Pursuit

After two months of experimentation, self reflection, and looking for your trends, it's time to begin the pursuit. That is, being more intentional and narrowing down an infinite number of possibilities into a few specific paths to pursue.

Exploring your own personal trends and themes - what makes you happy, feel motivated, feel inspired, - how can you set yourself in a direction to build a life around those things? You might be running low on cash now, so perhaps it's identifying a broad industry or specific kind of job you want. Or, you may decide you want to start something of your own, and begin mapping out what that journey looks like.

Chaos theory ultimately teaches that us that uncertainty and unpredictably will always be a constant in life. And while three months may be less than a blink of an eye in the history of the universe, it's a significant amount of time in our lives.

If we can take that time to simply better understand our initial set of conditions - those innate qualities that drive us, inspire us, cause our dissatisfaction or give us joy - we may have more control over our direction than we think. At the very least, we'll have a greater understanding of the path that lies behind us, and how we can learn from our own internal patterns, feedback loops, and elements self-organizing to navigate the uncertainty which lies ahead.
This post was first published on Escape The City.

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What Chaos Theory Can Teach Us About Life Transitions

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The three-month rule of transition, how to slow down, and the importance of giving yourself enough time to switch careers.

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Great book about the chaos of mistakes but turning them into something beautiful

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tjpeb6Xr1nc&pp=ygUOQmVhdXRpZnVsIG9vcHM%3D

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Overview: spontaneous themed worship, to explore the forces of Chaos. Theme or Background: Chaos Materials involved: chalice, readings. E.E.

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“Controlling Chaos” by Barbara Merritt. Skinner House, 2007.

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My husband, the physics teacher, receives a weekly magazine called Science News.…

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"[Hope] transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. Hope...is not the same as joy that things are going well...but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed."
-Vaclav Havel

My apartment looks out on the Mississippi River, where I watch barges travel back and forth each morning. But on nights when I wake up after midnight, scared and uncertain about what the months and years ahead will hold, I find my mind drifting from river barges back to my adopted hometown of Baltimore, of oceans and sailing ships.

Usually I think of anchors as something to keep us in place, to hold us steady as the world around us moves. But there's at least one other use for an anchor. Imagine an old sailing ship: on a big, 150-foot schooner, there aren't any motors or oars on the boat itself. The ship is designed to work with the wind; when you're out in the open sea with the wind at your back, it cuts through the waves fast and straight.

But how does the ship get out of port? What do you do when the wind isn't at your back, but coming straight at your face? Maybe you're stuck, no wind to be had at all.

There's at least one other way to use an anchor, called warping. The crew of a becalmed ship would take a kedge anchor and put it in a rowboat. A crew rowed it as far as they could out in front of the ship, and dropped the anchor. The crew aboard the ship hauled on the anchor-not bringing it up, but bringing the ship slowly overtop of the anchor. Then they pulled the anchor up, put it back on the rowboat, and repeated the process. It's not fast, and it takes an enormous amount of work from many people working together, but in this way even the largest sailing ship can move forward without any wind.

I think of an anchor as a kind of motivation when the wind is against us. Hope doesn't require that the wind be at our backs; it's not moored to a certain understanding of the experienced world. Hope is challenging, if not impossible, to grasp alone. Hope, in this sense, is a discipline to anchor myself to something that I can't quite grasp yet, but I trust is there-and a discipline to pull towards that goal together, one day at a time.

Prayer

God of all that is spoken and all held too close to be said aloud, help us to hold on to hope. When we find ourselves becalmed, remind us to drop an anchor over the horizon; pull along with us as we haul toward a more hopeful horizon.

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Hope is challenging, if not impossible, to grasp alone.

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Song lyrics include "Don’t give in to the chaos Keep your focus on the light You’re not alone. All is not lost Do not give up the fight" Video is the short song (until 1:50) then talking (which is less useful for us, I think, but good to know where the song came from).

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Keep Moving - A song of Love and Solidarity

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Photo Credit: Vijay Sadasivuni

Certainly I may have an intention when I begin; but unless I am willing to let go of my initial idea, I cannot be open to what will arrive. Often, in fact, the work comes as a surprise; what I find is radically different from that which I sought. (Stephen K. Levine, in Principles and Practice of Expressive Arts Therapy, 2005, p. 40)

Many of us know the feeling of having disparate, abstract ideas swirling around in our heads, wishing for them to manifest on paper, or a canvas, or whatever medium we prefer. But not knowing where to start, or where your mind is taking you with all of this. It can be frustrating, trying to make sense of it all and find some order in the chaos. I know that from experience. But the thing is, there might be a method to the madness. A kind of purpose to the chaos.

It may feel antithetical, and perhaps, even undesired to assign chaos - such a negatively charged word! -with something as soothing as purpose. I don't judge anyone for feeling that, however, bear with me.

I would say that both creativity and chaos get a bad rap sometimes. Creativity, that flow, can seem unattainable and reserved for the inspired and enlightened few out there. But what if we've got the whole creativity thing backwards in our minds? For many creators and artists, the creative process is more chaotic than anything close to a flow. Understandably, this can elicit feelings of frustration, confusion, and even hopelessness. Now, I would like to suggest that it's possible actually to create some calm and order in the chaos, by giving it a method, or better, viewing it as one. The creative process, I would say, can take inspiration from the scientific method. For a humanities researcher like myself, science is not necessarily devoid of creativity (does anyone actually think that?). Here's how.

#1 Observation (and Inspiration)

It all starts with observing the world around you, and within you, and letting yourself be inspired by what you see. That can mean taking a walk outside and paying attention to your surroundings, humans and non-humans, reading a randomly chosen book, or even watching a movie. Whatever you do, just be open to new awarenesses, thoughts, and ideas. Let your mind wander and jot down or record your observations, both the external ones and the internal ones. Pick one of them to hone in on.

#2 Asking Questions

Once you have an idea, or something close to an idea, of what you want to create something around, it's time to start asking questions. What is this piece about? What are my goals for this piece? Who is my audience/addressee? What kind of tone/ambience do I want to set? Answering these kind of questions will help you focus your ideas and start putting them into words, or images, or whatever form your project takes. Document your answers somewhere and save them, they're good for comparison and reviewing longer down the road of creation.

#3 Experimenting

This is where you start playing around with your idea and seeing what works and what doesn't. You might write (or sketch, or whatever) for a while and then scrap everything and start over from scratch. That's totally normal and part of the (creative) chaos! The important thing is to keep working at it until you're happy and satisfied with the outcome. However, let go if that inhibiting perfectionism. As you keep experimenting, you might find it beneficial to regularly pause and evaluate if you're sticking to your objective as defined in step #2. If you find that your project has taken a new direction, and you're fine with it, embrace that new direction and tweak your objective accordingly. Allow your project to continuously evolve and grow into its final product. Dare to be curious and enjoy the process.

#4 Drawing Conclusions

Once you feel that you've reached a finish with your project (whatever that might be), it's time to take a step back and evaluate what you've created. What worked well? What could be improved? What did you learn from this experience? Taking the time to seriously reflect on your work and the process of creating that work will help you grow as a writer, or an artist, or whatever creative field you're currently in. You'll hopefully get to know yourself better and how you operate within the creative process and how to easier get into the flow of making.

Photo Credit: Vijay Sadasivuni

Apollonian versus Dionysian

I'm sure that you've heard contradictory statements like "you can't sit and wait for inspiration/motivation to come!," and "you can't force it." I believe the truth lies somewhere in the middle between these two statements. I find that the two polarities are beautifully represented in the Greek myth of the two half-brothers Apollo and Dionysus. In an essentialist manner, Apollo representing our human quest for reason and order, and Dionysus representing our inherent longing for passion and letting go of shackles. Finding the right balance between activity and receptiveness, force and non-force, in moments of a creative block is key. Most likely, creative blocks will happen when you're in the process of creating something. Hence the mindset with which you approach a creative block will much likely color your whole experience of it.

My personal take on this: While you can't force creativity, waiting to feel inspired or motivated enough to create/do something won't bring it about either, or at least, you might end up waiting unnecessarily long for it. Creativity and chaos both involve risk-taking to a certain degree. They both require an openness to change and new ideas. Just like the creative process often may be chaotic and unpredictable, chaos can be a source of inspiration and creativity. That's the Dionysian framework. Creativity and chaos might just be two sides of the same coin. The key is to learn how to use chaos, in whatever form it shows up, in a productive and sustainable way (for you) - adding some Apollonian accountability in there.

The above four steps are meant to facilitate more curiosity and openness to new impressions and ideas that, in turn, may generate a spark of creativity, allow change and adaptations in new or dormant projects, prompt reflection and focus, and overall create a learning experience for people who find themselves roaming aimlessly in their craft. Hopefully, by the end of it all, you've assisted something into being that reflects this marriage between chaos and order:

The role of the artist or poet is not to impose a pre-existing form upon senseless matter but to allow the material to find its own sense. What is primary is what is given, a chaos of meanings which demands assistance in order to come-into-form. ( Stephen K. Levine, in Principles and Practice of Expressive Arts Therapy, 2005, p. 40)

Photo Credit: Vijay Sadasivuni

So, the next time you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by a million ideas, or a void of ideas, remember that there might be a method to ( not out of) the madness. By following the steps inspired by the scientific method - observing, asking questions, experimenting, and drawing conclusions - you can bring some order to the chaos, or some chaos to the order, and create something sprung from the madness of creativity. I'd love that experience for you.

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Many of us know the feeling of having disparate, abstract ideas swirling around in our heads, wishing for them to manifest on paper, or a canvas, or whatever medium we prefer. But not knowing where...

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When it seems all is torn apart and confused, it may be an ideal opportunity for creativity to reconnect the pieces anew.

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In which I expose the inner workings of my organisational obsessions

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Creatives crave a fundamentally different relationship and way of interacting with the world than most people. Considering most of our process is based on things not working the way we wanted them and then figuring out how to fix them, we're keen problem solvers. Naturally this means that we actually tend to thrive a bit more when things go "wrong." Throughout history you see patterns of some of the best creators and thinkers have always functioned best when confronted with problems and issues that need a solution, that's just how we work. Our entire process is built on the fact that you have this great idea, but then have to then struggle like hell to problem solve that idea into existence. I'll even venture to go as far as to say that it's this quality alone that makes humanity quite possibly some of the most resilient creatures on this planet.

A few weeks into the pandemic I was scrolling aimlessly through Instagram when it hit me that a large number of creatives weren't only still making, but thriving while the world stopped around them. Many people jokingly criticize creatives for being the definition of organized chaos, but when something of this magnitude hits its within our capacity to really shine because have resilience built into our lives on a daily basis. It's literally what we do. It's also fair to say that we thrive in chaos because in some ways that's just how our minds work. We need to have a lot of different things going on so that we can problem solve, make connections and come up with new ideas. On any given day there are approximately 80,000 different thoughts, directions and distractions that run across my mind - hell some days it feels like I've lived a couple different lifetimes in the sheer immensity of it all, but thats just how my mind works best and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Honestly the fact that the past few weeks have brought any shell of a routine I ever had to a screeching halt has actually been a blessing in disguise. Even in normal circumstances (between balancing contract work, teaching and running the studio) my schedule was already never the same two weeks in a row and I kind of like it that way. Now with my schedule cleared into the forseeable future and some new challenges on the horizon, it was the reminder I needed to show me not only how much I can thrive when left to my own devices, but also how much better I operate in general with a lot less structure in my life. It's also taught me that it's never really not a bad thing to live your life in a free falling state of gracefully organized chaos, in fact its quite the opposite - its a pretty damn beautiful thing.

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Creatives crave a fundamentally different relationship and way of interacting with the world than most people. Considering most of our process is based on things not working the way we wanted them and then figuring out how to fix them, we're keen problem solvers. Naturally this means that we actuall

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“I wonder how many times the world will change

before we learn that the world is change.”

Ethan Tapper, “Howe To Love a Forest”

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May we become quiet enough and still enough to notice the call deep within us that lures us towards what matters most…

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As we light this chalice, may each breath remind us of the sacred rhythm of life, the pulse of creation, and the power we hold to shape the world…

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small things mended for All ages service

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small things mended for All ages service

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Casey W. Robinson (Author), Nancy Whitesides (Illustrator)

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Small Things Mended [Robinson, Casey W., Whitesides, Nancy] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Small Things Mended