Change and Growth, Chaos Theory and Transitions

Christa and I frequent the land of ideas. One area we visit most often is where the districts of Growth and Change overlap. Much of our music and art deals with this. Why? Because change is hard and yet pregnant with the potential for crucial adaptation -- and the arts can provide space help deal with the pain and allow creative new life to emerge rather from loss, even devastation. 

Two books on this topic have recently fed provoked me: Transitions by William Bridges and Surfing the Edge of Chaos (2000) by Pascale, Millemann and Gioja. Neither are new books (Bridges released a 25th anniversary edition) but both contained much that was new to me (and to many people I've talked with on the subject). 

Both texts give conceptual frameworks and practical handles on transformation can happen through change. It's also fun to see bits of chaos theory filtering down into other areas of thought and culture and becoming accessible and useful to those of us who lack the capacity, interest or time to deeply understand what that way of thinking about reality reveals about the cosmos, ourselves, and how God works...