Order, Reorder, Disorder

May, 2024

Some of us (me too) like to keep everything the same but the reality is Things Change. Even though we claim to want/like/accept change, the truth is we don’t unless it is on our own terms. 

I have been very close to the reality of “Order,” “Disorder,” and “Reorder” of late. I’ve experienced some shocking news regarding a family member's health as well as another death of someone really dear to me.

"All parts of life belong."

— Martha Creek 

As I reflect and contemplate the “reality” of things and the certainty of the changes/losses/disorder, I am aware of a deeply held part of me that desperately wants normalcy — things to remain unchanged. I want death to take the ***holes of the world, not the kind, sweet, wholehearted souls. I want cancer/diseases to vanish and take all the suffering of humanity of any flavor with it. I also know that “disorder” — loss, change, grief, disease, illness, questioning, wanting, needing, and shock — are included. All part of the mystery of the life unfolding.  I am open to “reorder,” the “new” that most assuredly comes naturally from the first phases.  

This was strikingly apparent to me recently in a medical pavilion.  Patient after patient, being dropped off at the front door, unable to stand, unable to walk, unable to hold their head up in some cases, walking with assistance, slower, struggling, limping, clearly in distress in most cases.  

On the other side of me, pregnant women in droves, glowing (some of them), carrying new life, little infants in carriers, buggy strollers, in arms, cooing, giggling, with bright eyes and entering into life. The reality of the both/and, all phases, all stages, all in order according to Life.  

People and circumstances come and go. Life doesn’t stop for anybody.

Life moves very fast. It rushes from calm to chaos in a matter of seconds. 

"First the fall, and then the recovery from the fall, and both are the mercy of God."

— Julian of Norwich

It happens like this to people every day. It’s happening to someone right now. Sometimes the shortest split second in time changes the direction of our lives; a seemingly innocuous decision or moment rattles our whole world. Entire lives have been swiveled and flipped upside down, for better or worse, on the strength of an unpredictable event.

Most of the time these changes come when you’re not asking for them and not expecting them, but they happen. These changes are going to come; you can’t help that. It’s what you do afterwards that counts. That’s when you grow; that’s when you find out who you truly are.

Whenever we’re led out of normalcy into sacred, open space, it’s going to feel like suffering, because it is letting go of what we’re used to.  This is always painful at some level. If we’re not willing to let go and die to our small, false self, we won’t enter into any new or sacred space.

"Part of us has to die if we are ever to grow."

— John 12:24

“Order” will be deconstructed by the trials and vagaries of life. We must go through a period of “disorder” to grow. Only in the final “reorder” stage can darkness and light coexist, can paradox be okay. We are finally at home in the only world that ever existed. This is my goal, to hold the both/and simultaneously with a greater degree of ease.

This is true and contemplative knowing — ENLIGHTMENT. Here death is a part of life, failure is a part of victory, and imperfection is included in perfection. Opposites collide and unite; everything belongs.

"Freedom is what we do with what is done to us."

— Jean-Paul Sartre

We must resist the quick fix, distractions, and denial and acknowledge ourselves as beginners, to be open to true transformation. Once we can learn to live in this third spacious place, neither fighting nor fleeing reality but holding the creative tension, we are in the spacious place of grace out of which all newness comes. God/Life is now and always in charge, not us.

I lift you up, dear souls — all phases, all ways, and always in love.

 

My May 2024 Special Gift for You!

And here is my special gift to you this month. Click on the box to open your gift.

Martha’s Vineyard

Poem of the Month

The Summer Day

by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean —

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down —

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

Reading 

Somehow: Thoughts on Love, by Anne Lamont She explores the unexpected love for a partner later in life. The bruised (and bruising) love for a child who disappoints, even frightens. The sustaining love among a group of sinners, for a community in transition, in the wider world. The lessons she underscores are that love enlightens as it educates, comforts as it energizes, sustains as it surprises.  

Watching

Ordinary Angels, set in Louisville, KY starring Hilary Swank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNv-HpcGe0I

Based on a remarkable true story, Ordinary Angels centers on Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank), a fierce but struggling hairdresser in small-town Kentucky who discovers a renewed sense of purpose when she meets Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchson), a widower working hard to make ends meet for his two daughters. With his youngest daughter waiting for a liver transplant, Sharon sets her mind to helping the family and will move mountains to do it. What unfolds is the inspiring tale of faith, everyday miracles, and ordinary angels.

“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.”

— T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

and still more...

A new video message from Martha every day in 2024

The Science of Mind, A Philosophy, A Way of Life, A Way of Being Reflections/Insights offered daily to your email inbox when you “Like” and “Subscribe” to the YouTube Channel. (Click on the image below.)

When you purchase 10 or more copies of Presence & Potential from Amazon for your office, family, church or groups, I will host a one-hour “Meet the Author” session at no cost. 

To order from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Rrx8BQ

Email me at marthacreek@gmail.com with any questions. (More information on the book further down...)

Autographed copies of "Presence & Potential" are available through my online store at https://uppa-creek-art.myshopify.com/collections/books



Some of you may have noticed the recent addition of video Shorts to my YouTube Channel. We’re excited to bring these messages from Martha to all of humanity. Check them out at YouTube.com/@marthacreek. They’re available on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, and wherever else we're inspired to post. More soon, and be sure to enjoy, like, and subscribe, and let us (and your friends) know what you think!

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Cruisin' with Martha

Join me for cruises to Antarctica and also to New England and Canada that I’ll be taking in 2024 and 2025: 

https://www.marthacreek.com/martha-cruises-2024-2025/ for more information.

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