C: CHAOS THEORY

It is amazing how a word that once implied only disorder has been completely re-purposed through science! Now chaos theory points to an orderly universe far beyond our abilities to predict without cyber-help. Chaos is how change often comes to certain dynamic systems—like the weather, cities or the stock market, and even your brain. A tiny disturbance seemingly goes “deep” into the system and emerges somewhere quite far away with huge result! Even the Urban dictionary gets the idea: “The scientific theory that a single occurrence, no matter how small, can change the course of the universe forever.” (“Occurrence” was spelled wrong however!) The most famous statement of chaos theory is known as the Butterfly Effect. The flapping of the wings of a single butterfly could set off a storm of large proportions on the other side of the world. I have heard the countries adjusted often in the telling (butterfly in China--tornado in Kansas; butterfly in South America—cyclone in Asia; and I have heard the storm relocated to Texas but I’m thinking that was just a Texas getting its hands on the idea, as we tend to do!) Nevertheless, the chaos song remains the same. The micro-turbulence that receives that initial gossamer-wing-induced “disturbance” passes its energy on, layer by layer, tumbling here and lilting there, gathering sporadic rather than continuous momentum, until just the right configuration of “order” manifests as a refreshing and powerful storm of change! Meet reality: While we try with herculean effort to shift all at once the large problems in our lives, we so often miss making those tiny adjustments that would successfully navigate our personal complexities such that one day we would find ourselves standing in the gale-force rain and the wind and enjoying the cleansing! I recently had to adjust my chaos thinking a little, however. Though I never asked it to, my mind had filled in the gap of time between butterfly flap and storm with a length of a few days or maybe a couple of weeks. It “seemed” to my reason an appropriate length of opportunity for little air compressions to cycle through the global atmosphere. But last week, I learned that at least one researcher has suggested that the storm over Kansas might occur TWO YEARS following the initial flap of the wing! My amazement was rekindled! I had let the universe handle the details beyond my location and even beyond my logic, BUT, now I was being called to realize that this glorious system can also handle the trickiest of all navigations: that of TIME! I had been excited about the power of small changes, but I still wanted them to hurry and show up, not realizing that I was limiting the incredible order of God’s universe by my “reasonable” deadlines! I realized that I would have actually assumed the butterfly flitted “in vain” if no storm had erupted and two years had passed. New information of hope was billowing in on me about all the possibilities still swirling in the heavens for all of our lives. Like radio signals, our hopes and dreams are still alive somewhere travelling in the atmosphere, gathering order for a storm of “occurrence” to come! The order of the universe that chaos displays is even more deliberate, orderly, persisting and robust than I had imagined—and far more reliable. Not every flapping sets off a storm, but some will. Keep doing what you do well and with a good heart and trust the genius of a well-made system to handle the rest. Review your disappointments and remove your time limits. Faith, trust and positive “inner wing flappings” never die—they are being passed through atmospheres that matter, perhaps doing work elsewhere, and whether or not the storm ever comes to earth in a way you can perceive, they are worth it. (I can’t imagine a butterfly ceasing to use his wings—that is contrary to butterfly-ness.) The message of chaos is not: What can I do to produce change? It is rather: Do I realize that simply being myself is a powerful force in an amazing system? We each matter and there is a lot more going on than we realized.