Things Have To Get Messy: Reloaded

First let me start by saying that your responses have been overwhelming over the last several weeks, and please know that I read each and every one of them. I apologize that I haven’t been able to respond to all because of technical and administrative issues, but will do my best as we continue forward. Thanks again for being here… I truly appreciate you.

The entirety of the Universe is about growth and expansion. Make no mistake growth is hard. Tell your physical trainer you want to grow “the easy way” and find out how much he/she laughs. Likewise growth of the spirit.

Growth is messy. The most expeditious road to growth and expansion is fraught with dark forests, overgrown paths, and uncertain times. Max Planck, the father of quantum physics, stated, “Changes in nature are explosive… never continuous and smooth.”

There’s only one way that it’s possible to deal with internal pain and suffering that challenge often brings; and that’s through a commitment to growth and greatness. 

Bottom line… change is hard, explosive, and messy. And the more you resist this, the greater the pain and suffering.

Moving into a new apartment is a simple example of this that I’m sure you can relate to.

Think back to the last time you moved… you know it was a big job, right? You open box after box attempting to get organized, and yet it just seems to get continually worse, doesn’t it? At some point you begin to wonder if it’ll ever end! The attractive, tidy, (and empty) place you saw when you first visited, prior to renting or buying, is long gone. Now it’s a mess! Papers, boxes, and stuff everywhere! All the roominess it appeared to have is now cluttered and apparently shrinking by the minute.

Moving during the holidays was both a blessing and a curse for me (as all things are). As I gratefully watched the girls prepared the holiday meal this year, I reflected on life.

The kitchen like everything else was a complete mess… it looked like a food bomb had been dropped all over the counters, the oven, the stove… even the floor at times!

But something beautiful and really tasty eventually emerged. Do you follow? While it appeared for quite a while to be totally chaotic—a complete mess, there was a divine goodness going on beyond the surface appearances. An order existed that wasn’t readily apparent in the short term.


At some point in time we must choose to be lovers of life… or lovers of fantasy.

Things have to get messy. Life must get messy; and the only way beyond it is to go through it.

Even Chaos Theory tells us that in every apparently chaotic situation, if we can just rise to a higher perspective, a higher view if you will, there’s a perfect order that we don’t (or can’t), currently observe.

So continuing to unpack my boxes, it feels a bit overwhelming at times. But I’m so very grateful to have a few boxes. I’m so very grateful that Life has provided me with a place to live. I’m so very grateful for all the gifts of life. I’m grateful for my mess.

Even so, sometimes with all that has to be done to get my personal life back together and on track, I often wish I could just snap my fingers and it would all be done. I often wish that things wouldn’t have to be so messy before they find new order. Have you ever felt that one?

But then again… that’s loving fantasy isn’t it? It’s certainly not loving life.

I encourage you to do your best to love your mess… for it signals a new order.

Keep the faith,

james arthur ray

James