Léna is also a Regional Manager for Writopia Lab whose mission is to foster joy, literacy, and critical thinking in kids and teens from all backgrounds through creative writing.

"Well, the question is, what do you want to believe? Do you want to live in a world where things are possible, or in one where they aren't?" Cin, Edges.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Chaos begets more chaos

Things are getting excitingly chaotic, the end of the school year, getting ready to move from an apartment to a house - (we are getting very close!) Transitions are usually hard, but when you feel like you are on the right path, and spiritual energy is behind you, change is welcome. Except, when you're married to me, a writer with a case of the absent-minded-professor - I have a terrible habit of creating more chaos in my wake. It's counter-intuitive, because external mess creates more internal mess - but I "manage" by not managing - my shoes, clothes, books, papers are EVERYWHERE. My husband, also a writer, needs to have more order - and really I need it too! My poor family!

I was able to see myself through husband's eyes this morning, and once he took the boys to tae kwon do, and I dropped the girl off at a playdate, I cleaned and vacuumed, put my shoes away, my clothes away, my papers in order before making my way down to workshop with a gaggle of gals at Writopia. Who knows, with a clean house, I may even be inspired to write, to be guided to create that "cosmos out of chaos" my grandmother wrote about in Walking on Water. (I think I need to give that book yet another read, what say you?)

What happens to you when you're super busy and overwhelmed? Do you let chaos take over, or get obsessive/compulsive about order? Hopefully, you are somewhere in the middle - a place I am continually trying to get to!

6 comments:

  1. I'm both, Lena. Some days I can't stand my mess anymore (or the chaos/havic in my life) so I clean like a madwoman. I'd say that's what happens when things get really bad. Right now, I'm in a weird place in my life where I'm home for college, but there's not much point in unpacking because I'll be going to France in a couple of weeks. I'm visiting my dad in Alabama now, so I'm always packing for something. I feel like I'm constantly living out of a suitcase, so it's tough to feel like anything is in order. Not just with things, but with my life.

    Some days my room/apartment/dorm is so messy I can't even begin to clean it up. It's too overwhelming.

    It's hard for people to keep clean when that's not a priority. For me, priorities are family, school, and dancing. And there are about a thousand other things before you get to cleaning.

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  2. Things don't have to be perfect for me, but they do have to be organized, in some kind of order. I can not read or write while I sit in disorder. My mind feels like it is water witching, pulled to the left, then the right and never settling into either. If I have house straighened, then I feel ready to move on with mind things.

    We have just spent a month remodeling a bathroom and the chaos was nerveracking since I am also a nester by nature. (I wrote I AM a NESTER:http://claudiapage-bookie.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-am-nester.html).

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  3. You both say it so well - I think about my attraction and repulsion to chaos and what it means at different points in my life constantly. Chaos abounds - yet we each have the challenge to order ourselves in a way that helps us reach our potential. I'm still figuring that out!

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  4. The chaos takes over! But I make my bed every day, which makes me feel organized.

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  5. Having a made bed is crucial - an unmade bed is the destroyer of any semblance of sanity . . .

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