Peace and Chaos

I think of all the things that I truly, truly, long to master and have command of at all times is organisation. I have a certain degree of organisation that makes me feel good about being organized until I see someone who is actually in constant command of organisation and order maintaining peace in the midst of chaos and then I'm just like, "ohhh-K." I feel better about the things that I've accomplished when I'm accomplishing them in organisation, I know that others feel better about accomplishing tasks in organisation and not in chaos. It's just that chaos creeps up on me slowly taking a little here and a little there until--WHAM! Chaos is in control and the peace of organisation is deposed on some island country. The two, well three main areas where chaos can get a hold of me are: my office, my closet, and my car. Other places I manage to keep a fair handle on peace.

Here is a photo of my office at the beginning of summer, for real! As you can see chaos is in absolute control of this space. I have to say that this is the messiest my office has ever been. I have explanations for every single solitary piece of the chaos running free and frolicking in my little corner of the world. The black cart contains all of the things that I needed to take home which had accumulated over the course of several months. The case of Clorox wipes and the box upon which the wipes rested were bought by another minister for my use in Children's Ministry. Did I take the time to walk to the place where they belonged and handle it--NO. Behind my desk you can see a pack and play portable crib as well as a doll house which was given to us by a member of our church who thought we might want it for Teensy.

As you walk into my office, immediately to the right are my two sitting chairs and the black book shelf I had to buy to accommodate all of the books I've amassed over the years. Well...no one could sit down because it had been loaded down with junk, all of which is useful and necessary to some part of my life, however should not be occupying a place in my office. All of this stuff has a place, a right and respectful place at home or somewhere else in the work room. The large board behind my chairs is an excel spread sheet I had enlarged, laminated, and mounted to foam board so I could post my teacher's on their and recruit. The pillows on my chairs are gingham check with bumble bees and black tassels--really cool and they really go well with the colors of my space. The boys have managed to destroy all but two of the tassels on each pillow which really drives me crazy, but when you have boys you have things like that happen.

Here's my desktop and the view I looked at every day for several months. I realize there are some who will look at this and say, "What's the big deal?" And others who are twitchily walking toward their phone book to look up a therapist because they just can't take the thought of living in that kind of chaos.

I have to admit that I was letting it get me down and affect how I was functioning with my day to day tasks. It was like a huge boat anchor around my neck and I was dragging all of this through my day. Much like my Mom, when chaos get a hold I tend to flail around and act as if I can't correct or change my surroundings which only makes it worse. That is until I, much like my Mom, get sick and tired of being abused by the chaos and take action. I have to do it on my time frame and at my bidding, but I do get it done.

Kendra and Mildred have both ridden me for years about my messiness and both have come to my rescue to salvage the clutter and make my office a nice and tidy place to live. Mildred's always comes with pursed lips of disapproval and lectures, yes this is NOT one of my many typo's you will see in this post I mean it to be plural. "William {please read this section with a pursed imagination} this is just devastating. You shouldn't let it get this bad...just put things back when you are done and take them back to where they belong and it won't get this bad. I just can't believe that you would let it go like this." That's pretty much how Mildred's lectures get reved up. Of course I'm standing on top of the tallest in hill San Fransisco about to "push" a person in a wagon off, that's how I mean you to take what I say about Mildred getting reved up. It's just a push off the tallest hill in San Fransisco.

I knew that summer was coming and I had two interns starting soon and I just couldn't let my office continue to grow. I had to do something about it. Chaos was about to get it's butt kicked and I was getting my kickers on! I went to the office late on Sunday night and began the process of removing the junk and putting things right with my world. The on Monday, went in early and completed the task to my satisfaction...not to perfection mind you but to my satisfaction.

See, this is much better. I can't tell you how many people want to turn the bottle upright that is laying on it's side, but I like it turned of and in front of the other bottle. I don't want it to be turned up or "fixed" this is how I like it. Of course, they are well meaning meddlers who feel like their way is with out a doubt THE best way possible. Bless their heart.

Here is the picture of my peace, while still a little bit chaotic, it is none the less peaceful to me. The pictures on the wall are all of my family, in black and white, with the exception of the big 8x10 which is in color. We are planning to get a family photo made with the whole brood, but our "roundtoit" has not come in the mail yet. When it does we'll be sure to jump in the car and head on to the photo house for our picture. When this picture was taken I had not tackled my desk--yet! I did get it done that day and have kept it fairly peaceful for my busy summer standards. I'll be doing my summer fumigation here in the next couple of weeks.

This is what I look at everyday that I sit at my desk. I love the sketches on this wall--just love them. They are from Fredricksburg, Texas and were picked up several years ago while Kendra and I took a break and got a way just the two of us. It's the last time we've done that, nearly three years ago. Each of these drawings are scriptures that an artist read and then envisioned the picture of that scripture in her mind. She drew the picture but used the words of the text as her drawing. I don't know if that makes sense or not, but they are really beautiful to me and I love them. The piece in the middle is a gift from Mildred. I love it very much too and took down a picture that these drawings lived around since they became mine. I'm not much of a change for the sake of change kind of guy so this was a big deal. I love the collage that Mildred made and love the saying. I think it looks cool there and makes the black really stand out. You just can't go wrong with a splash of black or red in a room can you?

I've also fumigated my closet recently and restored order to that chaos. My car hasn't been running in over a year and just sits in the front of the house on the road waiting for me to save up enough money to get it fixed. We are managing with two cars, but it's really hard. I'll get that fixed and then have to fumigate that.