Messy Business by Barry Hughes



As I walked down one of my favorite streets this morning, I came across a play house at the curb in front of a house. My first thought was that someone had grown up over these months of my walking. Then I imagined that perhaps they had grown up a while ago and had just now gotten around to cleaning out and redecorating their room. Of course, it could be that this play house had sat unused for years in the attic or garage and was just now being set free from the grip of nostalgia and sweet memories of simpler, more innocent times.
This play house is very neat and orderly. Every room is fixed with all the details painted on crisp and clean. The rug is never askew and the pictures on the wall are always straight. Everything is always in order. I suppose that is why we call it a “play”house!
Real houses are seldom so neat and orderly, at least for very long. Homes in real life with real people living in them are often a little out of order; or a lot out of order, depending on the busyness of schedules and what unplanned events have disregarded the schedule and shown up anyway on their own time.
Life is a messy business. Sometimes the chaos is heard as the beautiful music of love and laughter. At other times, the chaos is experienced as the crashing of dreams and the shock of unwanted news. But all of the mess and all of the chaos and all of the crooked pictures and mislaid rugs mix together with all the moments of neatness and order to make our life. And, if we really listen, we often hear that even the chaos of life can sound sweet. It is in those moments we most fully realize the difference between “playing” life and living life. It is in those moments we most fully realize what it means to have a home.
Peace.

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