Over the last month or so I’ve been away quite a bit … a couple of weeks staying at an ashram on the edge of a forest; time with two little people up in the hills while their parents took their own time out; and most recently with precious friends by the beach, paddling in the sea and dozing peacefully beside two honey-coloured dogs, sprawled out in dappled sunlight on an airy wooden deck. I have been delighting in the challenges and transformations that have found their way out of this time. Time where I have been able to reflect, to ponder, to wonder … to sink more deeply into myself and create the space where mysteries have begun to unfold.

I’m rather a fan of the Greek notion of time. They have two words … chronos and kairos … that highlight the difference between deadlines, appointments, work structures and key performance indicators (chronos) and the magic and honouring place where time seems to stand still while we languish in the joy of being (kairos).

Giovanni, in Liz Gilbert’s Eat Love Pray (re-viewed in one of my kairos moments over this last weekend) spoke of the Italian ideal of ‘dolce far niente’ … the sweetness of doing nothing’, and these last weeks have allowed me the sublime pleasure of stepping off the treadmill of my chronos-driven existence, to savour the delicious reality of a simple and more contemplative life. Even while in the midst of the demands of my busy world, I have been able to find relief and sustenance in the simplicity of an uncomplicated and authentic existence.

In my moments of kairos over the next days and weeks, my challenge, and my delight, will be to continue to percolate some of the thoughts that have begun to emerge …

Take some time yourself … kairos time … to see what thoughts emerge that resonate more authentically for you …