Shiny Happy Universe

On other topics, I am trying to make my life more of how I want. I want clear space to breathe? Okay, then, make the commitment to clear space! I am trying to launch off the things I already do well. F'r instance, I have to have a clean tub, so I scrub it to shiny squeakiness at the first sign of soap scum. I know it's weird, but a shiny clean tub makes me happy. I like sweeping my floors. I like pinching the flower heads off the basil to keep it growing happily. I like the tasks that show immediate results. I feel happier for having done them. The challenge is to do the same for tasks that have gotten overgrown and messy beyond the easy prune.

I read something once years ago that prompted one of my desktop affirmation mottos: Inner Peace Through Daily Maintenance. I can't claim to have written that, but I hang onto that when things seem too overwhelming. It's the whole Bird by Bird philosophy (see Anne Lamott) married to the idea of a regular system. Some quotes:

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Author unknown/unremembered:

"IN HER INTRODUCTION, she explains why housekeeping is important, and why it should be revived. She articulates what I had never realized when I was fluffing the sofa pillows and cleaning windows. Thos chores have very little to do with being meticulous and clean, she says. Instead, they are the means to psychological well-being. It doesn't really matter how someone folds a towel. but it provides a foundation if a person has a system for folding towels..."

Oh, yeah. I like my systems.

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For balance:

"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials. " -- Lin Yutang

The crucial concept here for me is the concept of "essential." What is essential and what is not so important? Ah, it's all in the deciding, is it?

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And something from me:

The universe gravitates towards order and then towards chaos. Like a huge animal breathing, or the sea fluctuating between tides, the universe continually pulses on both cosmic and minute scales and every scale in between.

Ther are random peaks and valleys in states or order and chaos. Even within the larger swings, there are ongoing fluctuations. So a state of chaos might grow, then peak, then start coming back to an ordered state.

Some say the natural state of the universe is order. Some say it is chaos. I tend to say: both!

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... but as much as I appreciate the possibility of creative chaos, I prefer creating order and balance. Something aligned with beauty and purpose. Life aligned in balance. That's the larger pattern that makes me sing in happy synchronicity. Oh, to avoid the distractions. ha. But I like my distractions, my chaos! Then the small pool of order stands out so clearly, and reminds me of what that's like, pulls me with yearning (like the moon) again towards alignment. Order and chaos, like the tides.

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