Out My Window

Today my journal prompt that was sent to my inbox included this quote: "You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star."  --Nietzsche  'Well,' I thought, 'my star is one dancing fool!'

Then, I got a question about what the chaos in my life looks/sounds/feels like.  So, I started looking and listening out my window.  Here's what's going on:

• 4 different mosques are broadcasting their afternoon prayers.  With all of them going together, it works itself into various combinations of harmony and dissonance.  Usually dissonance.   It starts with a chant, inviting people to prayer.  Next, you can hear all the men saying their prayers.  After that, there are the equivalent of sermons from the leaders of each mosque.  Some are interspersed with chanting or religious songs.  One, in particular, sounds very angry every week.  Now, since the speakers are muffled and I don't understand the language all that much yet, I have very little understanding of what is said.  Still, I have to wonder what has happened in that man's life to cause so much anger.  I can imagine some of the things, but I don't know.  One day, Jed was trying to fall asleep during his hour-long-yelling session.  He asked me why that guy had to yell so much.  I told him I wasn't sure.  "Maybe we should pray for Him.  Maybe He doesn't know Jesus."  Jesus, the Prince of Peace.  Maybe he would bring peace to that man.  Good thinking, Jed.
• Cricketers.  Every once in a while, I'll hear a THWACK!  Usually followed by lots of yelling.  Sometimes there are loud disagreements as a friendly neighborhood game turns into a friendly neighborhood debate about where the ball landed.  Occasionally, I hear, "Auntie!  Auntie!" as a kid is trying to get my or my neighbor's attention because their ball went over our fence.
• Shepherds.  Our backyard neighbors chatting, or scolding their kids, or calling their goats, or arguing about something.  Their assortment of animals barking, bleating, crowing, clucking.
• My own kids playing in the yard with the neighbor boy.  Usually this includes a combination of yelling, whining, laughing, crying, and attempts as speaking each other's languages.  I especially love when Jed thinks he's speaking in Hindi just because he's trying to say words with an Indian accent :)
• The occasional honk.  Not nearly as often as I used to experience in our old city and not remotely what you would find in Delhi, but a honk still means, "I'm coming!"  And we have an intersection right by our house.
• The occasional peddler.  In this city, they come in on little motorized 3-wheel trucks.  No one attempts to push or pull their cart up our hill -- thankfully.

So, that's the chaos out my window.  What's the chaos out yours?