Time Part II: Owning the Space In-Between

"YOU are where time comes from -- you can make as much of it as you want!" 
—Gay Hendricks

After posting about time and abundance last month on Leap Day I have continued to get reminders about time and my relationship with it and I realized there is a Part II. 😀 I'm in San Diego for spring break. On a rainy Saturday (not typical here) we explored the San Diego Museum of Art. With every magnificent piece of art I found myself drawn to the description of the piece, specifically the artist, even more specifically the birth and death years. I couldn't stop calculating  ​how long each artist lived. For each artist's life I made a judgment, this life was too short, this life was really long (amazing how many artists I found who lived almost 100 years).

​And the thing is I don't know about the life in the time. The dash between birth and death year. This space in-between is where all of life happens. The numbers don't tell me about that, the numbers tell only the time in the life. I don't know about the joy, the pain, the ups and downs of these artists' lives. And I was reminded again that we are the ones who make the life in the time, we choose to make the time for what matters to us. We create the space in-between, we define the dash!

Then as I finished When the Heart Waits by Sue Monk Kidd I was reminded of time again. She explores the power of the waiting space and what caught my attention was the concept of Chronos and Kairos time. Chronos is chronological time, it’s sequential, it’s the ongoing estimating of what I can get done in a minute, 10 minutes, an hour, a day. It’s the time we live in when the second hand seems to pause before making it’s way around to another minute when I am waiting for a phone call or news from my kids, finishing a run that's a bit of a slog, or bored with whatever I am doing. It’s how the school year feels to my daughter and used to feel to me when I was a kid, it was interminable, summer would never come (and I liked school 😉).

​Kairos time is different. To quote Glennon Doyle “It’s time outside of time. It’s metaphysical time. It’s those magical moments in which time stands still.” Kairos time is playing Hygge with my family on the North Shore last summer - answering questions like "What is the best trait you inherited from your mother and what is the best one you inherited from your father?" - we spent at least an hour unpacking that one with all 6 of us. It’s watching my daughter score a goal at an 8:45 pm soccer scrimmage (that I almost decided not to go to, because I didn't have time) and cheering her on. When I’m in it I have no idea what time it actually is and yet I’m fully present with what is in that moment. It’s a place of peace and love. It’s the moments of aliveness, recognizing and feeling the utter joy of it.
 
A third reminder about time came from reading The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks. He uses different words for Chronos and Kairos, he calls Chronos Newtonian time and Kairos Einstein time. I actually re-read the chapter on Einstein time because I’m so enmeshed in Chronos/Newtonian time that I found it hard to understand Kairos/Einstein time. And last week I received a cry for help from a loved one and it clicked. Kairos/Einstein time is the deep understanding that we are the source of time, and the magic moments are ours to make. In Kairos/Einstein time we drop everything and cancel meetings to be with our family and friends because that’s what matters. In Kairos/Einstein time we choose what is most important and we don’t worry about the minutes, hours, or even days instead we fully surrender to this moment and what it brings.

This is the shift for me, I am the source of time, you are the source of time, we own it. We make time for what matters to us. When time is about the numbers, we miss the aliveness in it. We get stuck in the running, in the calculating. We become victim to it, it's exhausting;  and this culture of busyness is draining my energy or at least limiting rather than expanding it. Living into whatever we are doing, at work, at home, alone or together is about love, laughter, connection, peace and purpose. It's the space in-between the beginning and the end. It's the courageous space of taking charge of time. The space of you, the space of inspiration, the space of energy. You are creating it right now. Tap into the wonder! You and your potential are waiting for you to take the reins and own what you are doing in your dash. Want some support in discovering and owning what matters to you? Let's connect.