Kairos

"When we live by the clock, the Greeks said, we are bound by chronos time. This is the time that races, marches, creeps, and flies. It is the life that T.S. Eliot measured out in coffee spoons and the thirty hours of leisure that John Robinson tallies on his spreadsheets. But kairos is the time of the "right moment" the eternal now, when time is not a number on a dial but the enormity of the experience inside it."  Bridgid Schulte, Overwhelmed

Tis the season! And there is lots on the calendar, lots to do to make the holidays special. It is easy to rush, and lose the real present of the season.

So much to savour at the feasts and in the company of friends and family. I am grateful that before the crush of starting a new assignment in January I have a time of slower rhythm to catch those moments.

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illustration: A spiral clock represents the god of infinitely expanding time, Kairos or Caerus
From Lost in Translation:

‘Chronos’ ( Χρόνος), means measured time, a quantity, measured in minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years.

‘Kairos’ (καιρός) on the other hand, an ancient Greek word, means; the perfect moment or timing, the opportune moment, the moment of truth, the defining moment, that fleeting moment, that comes and goes in in the blink of an eye, which must be seized and not let go.... ‘Kairos’ is quality, not quantity, it’s getting the timing right; to know when the time has come, and that everything has its time.


Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

"To everything 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, a time to reap 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;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."