Beauty In The Chaos

As I sat down to write my post, I was unsure of what to write and wondered if today would be one of those days when writing the post would be like pulling tooth. I looked around me and all I saw was clutter on my dining table. I hate seeing or working with clutter around me.

On my dining table were my phone and laptop headsets and their cases, my iPad, three note pads, two jars of honey, and an empty coffee mug. Oh yes, there was also my orchid plant which is usually on a window sill but I moved it away from the direct sunlight to prevent scorching.

Yes it looked like clutter alright and I was irritated by it all; a part of me just focused on the clutter as I pondered what to write. I glanced upwards and saw my orchid flowers cascading downwards like a canopy which immediately made me pause and appreciate its beauty.

I realised there was beauty in the middle of the chaos on my table but I had only seen the chaos because it was what I was focused on. I didn’t cut myself some slacks even though I knew I could explain all the chaotic mess.

Yesterday evening, I was using the honey to create some recipes and made a couple of videos about the end result. I did the recordings on my phone so the headset and microphone were on the table. My phone ran out of battery so I had to plug the charger in.

I finished my recording 3 minutes before I was due to be on the ‘Swinging Palm Trees’ Video Podcast which I had to do on my laptop because the technology worked better on Chrome and I needed the headsets that came with the laptop.

At the end of the two hour conversation, I sent in additional bio information; I then edited and uploaded the videos that I had recorded. I reheated a cup of coffee that I forgot to drink and continued my work before heading to bed when I realised I was dozing off with the cup of coffee in my hand, amused but thankful that I didn’t spill it.

This morning, I researched some ingredients and wrote some recipes so the note pads ended up between the jars of honey and my laptop.

Thankfully, today, my coffee mug is empty because I remembered to drink it before I started to write my post and just before it became lukewarm.

Why am I telling you about my chaos? It is because I am not too different from most of you in terms of holding ourselves to painful standards even when we would have given others a free pass considering the underlying circumstances.

Even though I could explain every item on my dining table and I knew that each one ended up on the dining table on the back of a positive action that I had taken, my mind still saw them as clutter sending me a message of irresponsibility and untidiness. I had a choice to agree with my mind’s viewpoint or review each thought that came to me.

And because I was initially in agreement with my mind, I actually didn’t see the beauty of the orchids even though it was right in front of me and dwarfed every chaotic mess in its height, beauty and grandeur. Until I was willing to look up, I could only see the things at or below my eye level.

So over to you, what are you beating yourself up for? Did you make a mistake that you can’t free yourself from? Is your house permanently untidy because you have little ones or teenagers at home and it’s driving you up the wall? Are people making the workplace untenable because things are not done or put away at the right times?

There’s a lot going on around us all the time that can and will keep us in a state of utter frustration and we must remember that there will be others who will attempt to keep us in a state of frustration if we let them. We can’t always control the action of others but we can control ours.

Kindness to ourselves must start with us. We can’t guarantee that we will get it from others but since we know we deserve kindness, then let charity begin at home for you.

Be kind to yourself and to others. Look beyond the mess and chaos to appreciate the blessings and beauty that are almost always in plain sight but so easily overlooked and missed.

Thanks for reading and sharing my post. Have an awesome week.