It’s Just a Matter of Time

Time seems to mark all things. We are born, we live and then we die, all in a straight line. Events happen between those markers, certainly. And yet, our lives seem to move along a predictable trajectory from our first breath to our last. This is the world of Chronos, clock time. This Greek god/deity figure is the source of our words chronological, chronic, anachronism, and chronicle, among others. They all indicate the march of time, a rhythm that we accept as real and singular. Chronos, as a god, represented the ravages of time and consumed all things.

The idea of a fixed time didn’t exist until the 19th century when train schedules needed to be synchronised (another ‘chronos’ word). Before then different places worked at slightly different times, usually marked by the moment when the sun was highest in the sky, or what we now call noon. It was the ringing of church bells in each village that marked this moment, not the sound of a train whistle. In fact in 1878 Sir Sanford Fleming proposed the system of time zones we still use so that trains could operate everywhere. So it seems the needs of business embedded Chronos into our consciousness, not a fact of the universe.

There are other conceptions of time, today as well as in antiquity. Aion, in Hellenistic times (third century before the common era), was associated with the circle that encompassed the universe. This type of time was seen as contrasted with Chronos. It was understood to be unbounded and therefore associated with mystery religions and the afterlife, that which is unknowable to the rational mind.

Ecclesiastes, from the same time period, reminds us that there is a right time, a right season.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”

This Biblical writing tells of another concept of time, Kairos, the Greek word for the opportune moment, the special season, the right time. It’s the time when we “know” something, deep inside, and we respond.

Richard Onians (1899 – 1986) a classicist, traces the root of the word to the ancient Greek association with archery and weaving. In each art there is an exact moment when all the factors align in the right moment, kairos. The archer knows the exact moment when the arrow will fire with enough force to embed into the target. The weaver knows the opportune moment to throw the shuttle so that it passes, unimpeded, through the threads on the loom.

Several years ago I attended a meditation practice with nuns and monks of the Order of Interbeing. One monk sat in front of an enormous ‘singing’ bowl. His role was to begin and end each meditation session by sounding the gong. I watched him as he sat in front of the bowl with the huge beater. He welcomed the gong with a soundless strike on the rim. Then he waited, and waited, and waited until Kairos, the exact right moment to strike the bowl and awaken the sound that would usher the group into meditation.

Time shifts along with the stages of human development In childhood time moves very slowly. There is no sense of how long a year is, or even a week, at this time of life. Schooling changes that sense of endless time, in spite of wanting to stay in bed or hide in the tree house rather than gather up books and homework papers.

Then, in the work world, as adults, we live (or used to) by the 9 to 5 mantra. The weekends were the time for play, while Monday to Friday were ruled by the clock. We appropriately lived in Chronos. This is the developmental stage of “getting things done”.

As we age, Chronos often marks visible and invisible changes in the body: wrinkles, sags, pains, illness. At this stage we may find that lifting the second or third child of the next generation is more difficult than lifting the first newborn.

While the physical self expresses the time stamp of Chronos, elderhood can be lived in Kairos as well. Elders, with decades of Chronos experience, can tune into the opportune moment, the right time to release the arrow, throw the shuttle, or strike the singing bowl. Kairos flows from a deep knowing, an educated intuition, if you will. We have learned many lessons in Chronos. We can, now, act in Kairos, the fluid, multi-dimensional time. We have learned to wait, and listen to that still, small voice.

As Kairos holds us in its open embrace we can renew the state of wonder. A state where, as elders, we can appreciate what we might not have seen or heard or tasted in another phase of life because Chronos held us in thrall. In elderhood there is the potential and the opportunity to savour each experience, whether we like it or don’t like it. Kairos then allows us to act in the right moment.

Felice Rhiannon is a Certified Sage-ing Leader and a Onespirit Minister and spiritual counselor in Great Britain.  She can be reached at elderspiritblog.wordpress.com.