I’ll bet that you have gone through messy periods in your life because things were just getting out of control.  Maybe you’re going through such a time now?  What I have seen in my own life as well as the lives of people around me is that there is generally two types of messy.

The first kind is the kind of messy that lurks in the shadow of our neglect.  Neglect in terms of health, relationships, responsibility or fear.  We avoid engaging in the things in life that bring true meaning and freedom.   One day when we are blissfully unaware the mess jumps on us and we realise with a great freight that this mess is taking over and our ability to steer our lives is greatly diminished!  …Not so nice!

On the other hand we sometimes realise that we need to be stretched and therefore engage in a few more activities, relationships and responsibilities than we are used to.  We see it coming and we know that for a time it will feel out of control.  The critical word here however is FEEL.  Out of this messiness comes new creation; out of the dark there comes light.  You first have to lose control in order to gain it.

Living with an artist I can see this in action when she paints.  On the artist palet things are messy – it’s called mud.  It is a combination of colour and catastrophe that is not found in a tube.  The reality is that if the artist does not take deliberate action to mess it up, a unique creation cannot surface – the colour will remain the boring, stock standard colour form the tube.

In order to create you sometimes need a mess.  No action = no mud = no painting.

Go on!  Make a mess!