The law of unanticipated consequences is a predictable outcome of Wu Wei. Letting nature take her course assumes if one relaxes and lets life flow unimpeded, the Universe will balance. There is an elegance to this assumption. Yet the results may be unexpected.
Nature runs amok?
What after all, is harmony? Is harmony neat and clean? Does the garden you don’t care for grow brighter flowers? Does harmony clean up dust bunnies, find places for the million of things that fill our lives, the things Shirley Jackson refers to as “The little wheels off things.”
It’s such a lovely thought … but while nature running rampant may be beautiful, it also consists of weeds that choke the flowers … and in our homes, as an endless accumulation of the little wheels off things … and some not so little wheels off things.
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Categories: #Photography, #Writing, Humor, Words
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Can I go hide my face in shame now? So not as nice as the house you recently took a pic of in Connecticut. My house is definitely cluttered and filled to the brim. Adults and babies enrich my world. Although many times lately the adults have managed to tip my world a little bit on the upside down axis. Marilyn gave me some sage advice about just letting things go that are out of my control and driving me clean out of my mind. It sounds simple enough but unfortunately, putting that to practice isn’t always that easy. I will give it a try but when it comes to my kids it’s pretty tough to get past those mom can fix it feelings that I have lived by for years. Oh by the way, the missing photo is still there it just slipped down into the bottom of the frame when my crazy cat knocked it off the wall one day. I’ve just been neglectful in repositioning it. I must say, that made me chuckle when I looked at it too. Kind of kismet in a way it you knew about my crazy life. Thanks a lot, Marilyn, for introducing my messy house to the world. LOLOLOL. Glad it made a nice blog article for you though. 🙂
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Everybody thinks its MY house. Or they did until NOW. Anyway, you haven’t seen my office. It makes your living room look like a freaking palace. I’ve actually published pictures of my office. I’ve been told it’s very brave of me, but hey, my office has ALWAYS looked like that. It’s a paper storm with extras … bottles of whatever I’m drinking, coffee cups, medication bottles, empty cartons, packing material and about 50 dolls all covered with a nice layer of fuzzy dust. My life and welcome to it. Oh, and about 12 pairs of miscellaneous shoes. My son says I’m a centipede because that’s the only thing that could account for all those shoes. And that doesn’t count the stuff behind and UNDER the desk.
The house in Connecticut belongs to people who have maid service. They have money. We do not.
On Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 12:23 AM, SERENDIPITY
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Money?? What’s that? I have a few dust bunnies roaming around here too. I actually sucked many of them up today. Poor dears are now somewhere buried deep inside my vacuum. I’m definitely still laughing when trying to picture you as a centipede with all those legs and feet for shoes. The fuzzy plastic covered dolls also live in my house as well. I know they’re around here somewhere. Oh yeah, and I also have a Barbie nudest colony around here in a box in a closet or shed. Wonderful treasures from 50+ years in one house. Might be time to move. LOLOLOL.
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My whole house is fuzzy with dust. It’s such an overwhelming task to clean it I doubt it will EVER get done. I pretend it’s not there.
On Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 12:37 AM, SERENDIPITY
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Harmony is tricky to be sure. In my book it does not imply neatness only balance. And a weedy garden is not a garden in balance…though the weeds may be there because I am out of balance and neglected my own mental weeding.. Mirrors everywhere reflect the truth of the existing moment. Hugs and blessings, Tasha
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Well, it depends on how you interpret Wu Wei. It could easily be interpreted as philosophical license to do nothing and let everything do its own thing … a great philosophical excuse for no effort of any kind. I don’t think that would work out so well — at least not for me — but of course, I’m probably not sufficiently Zen.
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Love the reference to “little wheels off things” for it is most befitting to life not necessarily only in the fast lane! I just want to know whose picture is missing in the upper right collage? hahahaha
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It’s not my house. Only my office looks like that (maybe worse). The rest of my house suffers from layers of dust, but the spaces are fairly tidy otherwise. My office, on the other hand, looks like a paper storm assaulted it! I don’t know what was or will be in the empty space in the picture. Very observant of you to notice. I thought it was a nice touch though!!
The reference to “little wheels off things” comes directly from Shirley Jackson’s (The Lottery, The Haunting of Hill House) Life Among the Savages, a memoir of life raising her four kids in a big house in Bennington, Vermont. It is one of my favorite books and she is one of my favorite authors. Stephen King’s too. She was in many ways the original ghost and horror story writer, but she was also very funny.
On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 12:17 PM, SERENDIPITY
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I’m speechless!
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What is there to say?
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