God's Unchained Melody

This week was rather stressful. I was doing things I promised myself I wouldn't do, and not doing things I vowed to do. On top of it all, school has once again reared its ugly head in this horribly warm October. I couldn't even enjoy the pumpkin spice frappucino I bought for a Friday treat.

It seems that bigger frustrations channel themselves into multiple little ones to the point where ordinary or mundane tasks become impossible to complete.

Bear with me on this trite example.

For the past two weeks, I have desperately tried to untangle two of my long necklaces so as to wear them with my daily ensembles. Mind you, I've dealt with twisted/tangled chains as many of us have, but these were unusually complicated. Time after time, I failed. I'm sure all of us have experienced this; we put in furious energy to get something done, and it always backfires. So I set the chains aside, until this afternoon where I saw the two of them, dangling in confusing knots over Rafiki (my stuffed Chimp), daring me to give another go at them.

During the time my eyes kept darting towards the chains, I was watching "28 Days", a Sandra Bullock (Cindeikou would be proud) movie I avoided for years simply because it came out when SB was "super-in" and I was loathe to seeing a movie just because some fad celebrity was in it. Needless to say, it was pretty good and she was pretty good in it. She played this alcoholic who has to complete a 28-day rehabilitation program in order to avoid jail-time for driving drunk into someone's home. Anyway, for some seemingly unconnected reason I was motivated to battle my necklaces after seeing SB kick the alcohol/drug habit.

I went at the silver one first, because that one appeared to be the easiest since it had only one knot in the middle. Of course I was wrong. Once I started tackling the little knots, more and more formed until I just started angrily fumbling with it. It was like all the feelings I had harbored over my bad week culminated in me relentlessly and impatiently bullying this silly chain. I sensed that feeling, and immediately just took a deep breath and asked God to LET THIS CHAIN UNRAVEL. And it did. The second one came apart easier than the first, despite it being the more intricate one.

Even in this small, insignificant moment, God can speak to you in amazing VOLUMES. I thought about school, life, the people in the movie with all those addictions and demons, my own and others'. Its incredible how the subtlest things in life, the stuff that goes unnoticed, can cause so much chaos. That one little knot seemed so easy to solve, and yet all it did was lead into other knots that had to be resolved. Sorting out the "knots" we confront in the present or bury from the past to reach our core may mean cutting off bad company, shedding insecurities and just plain starting over. I know this is probably not a novel or revelationary thought, but it is one that comforts me. Its just a reminder that each new day really is another chance at doing one's best to make things right.

Oye, I've written quite a bit, no? Oh le blog, you're such a [welcomed] distraction. =)