I rarely meet anyone these days who has enough time. And in fact, if I am ever in a conversation with someone who intended to do something and did not, usually the reason is that they didn't find the time. It seems this is true for many of us.
There are actually two words for time, though. Both originating in the Greek language. Chronos, which is the word for chronological time or clock time. Kairos, which refers to time out of time; timeless, or perhaps even the perfect moment.
I have been intrigued about ths type of time for many months now. It has been a place holder in that messy file that includes clips, and articles, and scribbles that I intend to use as fodder for 'someday blogs.' I guess until today, I didn't have enough time to write about it.
I haven't found a lot written about Kairos, and yet, we all know what this is. It is that moment when time stands still. It is qualitative time...or liminal time, a moment or moments when we are situated at the threshold.
I have found this in a few places.
I caputured one of these moments just recently when I was away at a retreat house for the weekend. It was a Sunday morning, and I had paused at a window to look out in the snowy yard. Nothing special was happening until a few moments into my pause. And then, the sun drove beams through the trees toward me. It was as if the rheostat on the sun had been dialed up just for me!
I have also noticed other times -- reading a story to a friend's child, in a kayak out on the Charles River with no one in sight, sitting with a loved one in the evening, reading quietly.
What makes these times special is that we intuitively step out of chronos time, and ease into time that stands still, making these moments some of the most precious moments of our lives.
The discipline is to set aside our daily grind, our daily 'to do's,' and give ourselves over to these liminal, kairos moments.
As Colbie Caillat says at the beginning of her song, Bubbly,
'Will someone count me in?'
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