Organizing principles are the boundaries of the canvas.

A blank page is the only perfect, flawless piece of writing out there. So too is the vast field, the unpainted sky of possibilities for one's life. The only perfect life is the one that has not been lived.

One way to start painting our lives is by creating boundaries and limits around our behaviors. These are creative constraints much like those that define form and harmony in music. There is indeed art that is pure chaos, free and boundless, but most music I know and love lives by its constraints and charms us when it defies its own expectations.

Jazz is a great example of this notion—within a form, within a 12-bar blues, there are clear expectations set by canon and decades of precedent. And yet there are so many ways to play the blues. And yet there is so much personality and charm that can be infused in one's solos over that form. There are ways to manipulate the form, the harmonies within it. The band can be playing in Bb and the soloist can decide to play in B natural, just to tease, to challenge, to explore. The constraints set the baseline; they orient us and enable our compass to function, to guide us north, west, south, and east. Without knowing where we stand, it is very hard to know where we can go.

In a podcast I listened to recently, Brené Brown casually mentioned that religion is an organizing principle of her life. This caught my attention. What organization, what creative constraints does religion offer us?

Religion is a big word and easy to misinterpret because of its malleability and baggage. When I think of religion here, I am thinking in a general sense but one that includes organization around a text, a community, and a set of beliefs. My definition here is for the scope of this blog and is neither meant to be exclusive nor definitive at large.

When I think of religion from my perspective, it is from the vantage point of the Bahá'í Faith. What organizing principles does this Faith offer me and its believers?

Bahá'u'lláh, the prophet-founder of the Bahá'í Faith, wrote a book of laws (the Kitáb-i-Aqdas) that outlines a set of rules to follow, holy laws He expects His adherents to abide by. Among these is a call to daily prayer and meditation. The set of obligatory prayers from His writings includes the performance of ablutions and specific times when these prayers should be intoned. These are subtle and yet powerful organizing principles of prayer that punctuate a believer's daily life. Praying offers a point of connection, of remembrance, of conversation with the Divine.

The organized community of the Bahá'í Faith and its activities offer believers and friends a set of community-building activities meant to foster genuine friendships through elevated conversations, deepening understanding of spiritual principles, and participating in acts of service to the community. These patterns of community life are organizing principles that help define how to live one's daily life in community. Devotionals, a gathering where people come together to share holy writings and prayers, are an organizational entity that allows us to meet our needs for community and connection to the Divine.

Beliefs too are organizing principles. If I believe the premises from the Bahá'í Faith that men and women are equal, that science and religion must live in harmony, that all are created equal and deserve no prejudice from class or race, then my thoughts will be shaped and guard-railed by these beliefs. The natural emergence of biases will be challenged by these core principles—if I begin to make racial judgments, the core belief will challenge those; if I begin to wade into extremes of superstition or skepticism, a reminder of the harmony of science and religion may rebalance my perspectives.

Organizing principles give us a path to follow. They help us move far in a direction rather than in circles.