The Greeks also had Kairos time which is more about particular moments, and the slow passage of a year, or a life; the kind of time written about in Ecclesiastes. “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven…” We know the phrase, “In the fullness of time” as it talks about the birth of Christ. More recently we have started to talk about this Covid Time which I think is really important because it falls under Kairos time not Chronos time. The Black Lives Matter movement gained considerable strength this past year I believe because of the intersection of the murder of George Floyd and the Covid lockdowns, we have come to a certain “fullness” of time, with anger rising, patience running out and the urgent need for structural change to address systemic racism at this moment in time.
And that brings me back to my dwindling pile of hay bales. I have four cows that share one bale of hay each day, morning and evening, and when I go up in the loft to toss another bale down, I am counting down the days to April and the return of the pasture. It is bittersweet passage of time because the wintery feeding of hay connects me to these dewy nosed animals twice each day. They are eager to see me coming and they trust that I will feed them. But they are even more eager for fresh green grass as the days warm up and lengthen and I have less of the intimate winter time that I have now.
Each Kairos day is filled with the gift of moments. Moments to ponder, savour, remember, activate, contemplate, and muse upon.