Wednesday, September 10, 2014

So Just So You Know

This is what downsizing looks like in process...



It doesn't look very productive and it sure does make a mess!

I'm reminded of the synchronicity, the dialectic in the universe between Order and Chaos. As much as I would like it, I can't have order without chaos. Sometimes I find what I'm looking for in the midst of this mess.

Over the past few years, I've been learning to live this way in large part thanks to my husband's job. He works with Mike + Doug Starn and Big Bambu travelling around the world to build these amazing art sculptures out of bamboo and cord. (In fact, you'll see him on the landing page of their website! Handsome devil.) Their art showcases the connection between order and chaos, Yuval Saar says it much better than I do, summarizing the Starn brothers:
"...[the sculpture] takes its form from the dynamics that develop in the course of the construction process, embodying the tension between order and chaos." Haaretz article


I have gotten to travel with the building crew and watch the birth and creation of these incredible artworks. It generally starts with a simple structure of two or three poles strategically placed in a neat configuration, and then - kapow! - within a day or two, poles are everywhere in an explosion of bamboo. And then, with each passing day, I see the shape of the piece come forth and fill in and become itself.

This is how life happens. A calculated flow between simplicity and complexity.

As I write this, I'm surrounded by chaos. Not just the mess in the living room (and the bedrooms and the kitchen), but my husband is cooking breakfast and chatting with me and my daughter is next to me learning to wash dishes.

It's okay. This is my life. The chaos is necessary, and I'm just going to let it be. The order will come.