Grace Beyond the Chaos

. . . . A few words about chaos: Chaos is Grief, known by another name. It is unpredictability – a doorway into frustration, fear and instability – unrelenting noise, upheaval and uncertainty which inevitably messes with our mind’s decision making and our heart’s emotional health. It’s exhausting.

Sameet Kumar, author of “Grieving Mindfully”, posits that “Every time you . . . are faced with uncertainty, you grieve the loss of a predictable and safe world. You experience grief when you experience any change in your relationship to the world.”

You know the feeling: the unwelcome disruption of that intricate and intimate balance you have with your own accepted reality . . . what you value, what you count on . . . what/who you have learned to love and hold dear . . . what/who you believe is now in danger. Grief lives within the chaos of those spaces.

So where’s the grace in all that? There is a Sufi saying which shares the belief that “our greatest gift lies beyond whatever door we name fear.” I believe that gift is Grace.

Granted, grace is rarely as apparent as chaos. After all, it isn’t defined as a physical entity. Unlike chaos – loud, demanding, disorienting – coming at us in the real-world shapes of destructive change and loss, grace exists internally as a gentle, steadfast state of mind and heart. Always present, waiting to be called on to quiet the noise, nurture and heal, grace rises from within as compassionate courage, loving kindness, mercy and endurance.

Anne Lamott, in “Traveling Mercies”, shares a Buddhist idea that when many things become unbalanced or start unraveling all at once, it is to protect . . . to keep our interfering hands and minds off of “something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born.” This idea calms me. I need to believe this chaotic time has a purpose beyond perpetual pain and fear, like setting the stage for the coming of a new time of “something big and lovely”.  And, as I wait, I hear that still, small, persistent voice of my heart’s grace reminding me that enduring resistance requires as much hope and trust as it does courage.

In the midst of fear-filled unpredictability, may you feel the power of grace, waiting within your heart, and rest in its messages of hope, calm and assurance. I’ll meet you out there where, instead of moving onward under the weight of chaotic grief, we’ll open into the light of grace as we walk together beyond those doors we’ve named fear.

One kindhearted day, one deep breath at a time, my friends -

Jane

https://www.janenicoletauthor.com