Another Word for Disorder is Disquiet

Another word for disorder or disorientation is disquiet. As I sat with my reflection yesterday on disorder and heard from so many of you about feelings of disorientation I again thought of the liminal qualities of being in the disorientation and even embracing it. I remembered moments of change, of transformation, which are possible just beneath the surface. Richard Rohr calls this reorder; Walter Brueggemann reorientation. 

There is a surrender in this space. And an accompanying awakening. This poem by David Whyte entitled Sometimes describes these disquieting yet expansive and formational moments which alter who we thought we were and show us who we might become. Sometimes disquiet is the “good trouble” we need. 

SOMETIMES
by David Whyte

Sometimes
if you move carefully
through the forest,
breathing
like the ones
in the old stories,
who could cross
a shimmering bed of leaves
without a sound,
you come to a place
whose only task
is to trouble you
with tiny
but frightening requests,
conceived out of nowhere
but in this place
beginning to lead everywhere.
Requests to stop what
you are doing right now,
and
to stop what you
are becoming
while you do it,
questions
that can make
or unmake
a life,
questions
that have patiently
waited for you,
questions
that have no right
to go away.