photo: sally schneider

Since moving, our space has gone from mess to order many times, as we unpack, settle, organize, in stages. Today, just as we thought we were through the worst of it, that is, AFTER we put the pots back on the finally-finished pot racks, all hell broke loose. Everything went wrong that could, as we tried to set up new phones (where IS the phone that’s ringing?)  install the new AC to discover it was damaged, clean up the mess left from a project, help an ailing mother from afar, hire a new assistant, IMPOSE SOME ORDER and get this lovely place back to its airy minimal self. Every project we started got interrupted by another going wrong until finally we hit a wall.

photo: sally schneider

And when we hit the wall, we found ourselves thinking: There must be another way to view this/do this. We thought of the post we’d written this morning, “when ‘disaster’ gets interesting” of the guy with ALS, and all the people who are up shit creek – REAL SHIT CREEK – finding positive way to deal with truely difficult things, and realized that nothing was really wrong, just a lot of little things awry. What are we doing wrong here? is the question we asked…What assumptions have we bought that it all has to come together in OUR timing, go smoothly? What is really behind our thinking something’s wrong?

photo: sally schneider

We are mulling that. And meanwhile, made a cup of tea, and little by little will straighten the chaos of the place out. We offer these pictures as a relinquishing of order and notions of perfection…of how things are “supposed to be.”

Wallace Stevens wrote: The imperfect is our paradise.” That’s the shift of view we needed.

photo: sally schneider

Related posts: when ‘disaster’ gets interesting
project + reno lesson: embrace the unexpected……… things won’t go as planned
chuck close’s ‘note to self’ (eight perfect rules for living)
the world is change (and change is not apocalypse)

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13 replies on “what to do when all hell is breaking loose…

  1. Hey, that’s some gorgeous sunshine. I know you might not want it heating up your space, but it looks good.

    Hang in there. A move is a major life-shaker, even a positive one. Things will come loose. From the outside, you look just fine.

  2. Yeah, that’s some gorgeous sunshine, which I love, even though I have to figure out it heating the place up. “Things will come loose.” For sure. And it is amazing to read this comment, right after this post was published: kind perspective from a stranger. Thanks a million.

  3. Who was watching? And who was freaking out?

  4. Remember, shit happens. For a reason. So I’m told.

  5. In the middle of all your chaos, my eye fell immediately on the vase of flowers. It feels like a quiet “om”, unfazed by everything going on around it.

  6. Thank you for sharing another way to look at the things of life. So helpful.

  7. I’m mixed up about the layout now.. I could have sworn you had a mirror to the right of the door, and hence a wall there.. thanks for showing us your progress, it is a wonderful space, and your movement in it, and reflection of that, is nice to know.

  8. What keeps cracking me up is the number and variety of chairs in the space! Love the mix, the shapes and it seems, the only pop of color provided by your bum spots!

  9. Yeah, i’ve got A LOT of chairs, especially love very modern shapes. Color is coming…

  10. I had no doubts about the color yet to come. Just can’t wait to see which one(s)!

  11. it is rich to notice our “feelings” – separate from the boxes and labels – the cool thing that arises for me is CHOICE – big breath…love choices…chaotic or not, your space is ALIVE!!! – buzzing actually w/unlimited possibility – there is something about white especially that feels like a canvas – can’t wait to see more!

  12. I don’t know if the imperfect is our paradise, but it’s all we’ve got, so we might as well live as if it is. Thanks for the reminder!

  13. Sally,
    we all have days when nothing goes right. It seems that one irritation gets interrupted by a complication which gets stopped short by a problem which gets slammed by a disaster. shtuff happens, but grace happens too.

    just read this in a little book called Now is the time by Patrick Lindsay:

    Now is the time …

    to look up

    Take the opportunity to raise your sights — literally.
    Look up from your normal field of vision:
    take in the roof lines of buildings, the hills, skies, treetops, birds.
    There’s a whole new world there.
    It’s all about changing your perspective.

    “The bluebird carries the world on its back.” ~Henry David Thoreau

    You’ve got a great view, and a new place, and all those wonderful Things, and the fresh flowers and … and … and …

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