Chaos without? Contentment within!

Now that’s the goal of all goals, is it not? So, why is it, that your life and mine has more of the former and too little of the latter?

This morning, for example, I had the good fortune of getting caught up in a little conflict with a colleague.

Chaos Without…Contentment Within

Ever happened to you?

It was the kind of conflict that steals your joy almost immediately, does it not? The day starts out well but then this stings you like a bee who appears out of nowhere.

Then, as if that were not troublesome enough, once the unhappy exchange with the colleague is over – with no clear winner – you spend the remainder of the morning replaying the conversation in your head. The trial is over. The verdict has been issued. Everyone has gone home. But you’re still standing in the middle of the courtroom, making arguments for an audience of one — the one in your head.

An empty courtroom of conflict and the chaos is being played out inside your cranium. You are familiar with this madness, are you not?

Here’s how the madness inside your head often goes. You can admit or not if this is how it is with you.

You say something, as the defense attorney. The prosecutor in your head says something in response. You respond in defense to their charge. But not the same way you responded when the real drama unfolded earlier that morning. No, this time, you respond in precisely the perfect way you wish you had responded when the actual incident occurred.

This insanity goes on and on…

and on still more throughout the day.

Heck, I even took the empty courtroom with me on a walk around the neighborhood. All around me were the sights and sounds of new life but I saw none of the seductive scenery, lost as I was in a salacious drama inside my head.

Contentment and the Stuff in the Head

Then, suddenly, as if surprised by an tsunami, I caught myself engulfed in the mental chaos. And, when I did, I stopped in my tracks. Literally. The thoughts stopped too. The courtroom was silent, for the first time that morning, I might add.

The interrupted drama came to an instant pause, as if an actor had recited the wrong line on stage in the middle of a play and all the others actors are befuddled and wonder what to do next.

When you are gifted with an interruption inside your head…something that temporarily stops the internal chaos and conflict, then you must seize it, my friend, as if it were the last morsel of bread before a famine ensues.

Think of this interruption as the God of spring herself at work on your behalf.

It just might be, you know.

God may just be gifting you with an opportunity to step outside the conflict inside…and, why? So you may see inside the beauty that surrounds you outside.

Tell me this is not a miracle and you’ll not succeed. For I will always believe that God is the God of springtime interruptions.

In that moment of silence…standing, no longer inside the empty courtroom of my head but, instead, under the rich, blue sky like an endless ocean…

Everywhere I looked, the sights and sounds of spring were shouting at me. Birds were singing that spring had sprung. Squirrels were dancing to their rapturous songs. Twigs and limbs, still cold and dark from winter, were pushing forth new life in pale greens and bright reds.

Contentment is the Goal of All Goals

God spoke to me today. I know it was her. She is everywhere my friend.

But, you know…

You only ever see around you what you are cultivating within you.

Cultivate chaos and conflict will abound, both within and without.
Cultivate contentment and peace will abound, both within and without.

When there is peace within you, there will be peace in the world.

Until then…

Well…

It’s just drama…
In empty courtrooms…
And, troubled craniums.

I’m ready for something more. Aren’t you?