The paradox of chaos and order is not new. As ancient myths and new science both assert, every system that seeks to stay alive must hold within it the potential for chaos (Briggs & Peat, 1989). The destructive energy of chaos dissolves the past and gives us the gift of a new future. It releases us from the imprisoning patterns of the past by offering us a ride into newness. Chaos enables us to recreate ourselves.
Most of us have experienced this ride of chaos in our own lives. At a personal level, it might be a profound loss of meaning; nothing makes sense in the way it did before (Wheatley, 2008). Yet, these are part of the human experience; how we participate in the spiral dance of form and new form, As we reflect on these times of descending into chaos, we realize that towards its end we emerge changed and stronger in some ways (Wheatley, 2007). We participated in the dance of creation and learned that growth always requires passage through the fearful realms of disintegration.
Depite the chaos' role in the emergence of new order, Western culture denied it mainly. The dominant belief was that chaos could be eliminated from life. Most people believed that there were straight lines to a specific goal and we would not descend into confusion. These beliefs led us far from the processes by which newness is created (Wheatley, 2007).
As modern life becomes more complicated we are willing to give thoughts about chaos itself. Regardles of how we discover it the important lesson to keep in mind is: "The destruction cretaed by chaos is necessary for the creation of anything new." (Wheatley, 2007).
