Marti martimelville@gmail.com, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by Marti martimelville@gmail.com
A Season of Chaos 11/18/2010 6:01:28 PM
Sunset became official about an hour ago here in the Rocky Mountains. The Western sky was ablaze with vibrant sienna, bittersweet and copper. Clouds peppered the night sky's pigmentation in various shades of slate. Random bursts of light shot forth, the last rays of this day's sun. It was breathtaking...and chaotic.
I sat with the ex's second wife (yes, we are very close friends) who told me of her trials. She said something profound, "I feel like I am sitting in the eye of a hurricane watching as my loved ones spin around me. When one of them spins a little too far out, I reach up and pluck them back down. Then off goes the next one and I reach up and pull them back, and so on..." Wow! What an amazingly accurate image she painted of her purpose, her talent and strength...in chaos.
Last evening I spent a few hours nibbling on veggie wraps and quiche with a co-worker, mentor and dear friend. She figited and fed herself amazing food while letting floodgates ease open just a crack and emotion trickle through. She was facing loss, fear, change, hope, adventure...and chaos.
My neice and nephew buried their firstborn today, a baby brought to this earth then taken from it in the same breath. Their strength, dignity, faith and unity overwhelmed and inspired me. I blinked back the tears and watched as lives were touched, tested and tempered this day. Unity prevaled amoung cousins, sisters, brothers, parents and friends. Five generations of family bonded over the loss of an infant only an handful had met. As the winds blew and leaves fell on this very unsettled day, peace prevailed, overturning a chaotic event.
This is an unusual autumn. There is chaos in the colors of the leaves still clininging to the trees, as vibrant and varied as the sunset this evening. Temperatures seem unable to decide whether to stay a summery 70 or frigid 40, dancing back and forth between the two extremes. In just one week, a day of Thanks is celebrated throughout this great country. Exotic foods are consumed as traditions are repeated. So much change, so much chaos.
As I walked this evening, staring at the amazing sunset splayed before my eyes, I realized that chaos isn't bad. I love the vibrant colors of the leaves and felt joy at the vision given to me in the twilight sky as the sun set. I look forward to the hustle and tradition of holidays. This is chaos I can revel in. It is a choice: do you see leaves clinging to trees that just need to be raked up as the days grow colder or do you choose to peek at God's palette. Are life's chaotic events spinning you off into oblivion or do you see yourself as the anchor in a brilliant storm.
Choose joy, choose peace, choose to find yourself in your chaos.
