kairos Time, Where We Glimpse a Deep Place Where Time is Timeless

Kairos Time, Where We Glimpse a Deep Place Where Time is Timeless

“Music helps us ‘keep time’ in the sense of keeping us in touch with time, not just time as an ever-flowing stream that bears all of us away at last, but time also as a stream that every once in a while slows down and becomes transparent enough for us to see down to the streambed, the way, at a wedding, say, or when watching the sunrise, past, present, and future are so caught up in a single moment that we catch a glimpse of the mystery that, at its deepest place, time is timeless.”—Frederic Buechner in Beyond Words.

Buechner writes that artists who paint work with space, while time is the medium for musicians, as the changing sound of one note follows another at different intervals. I hear each bird singing outside my window with a distinct rhythm. Even the silent wind makes a variable sound as it moves through nearby trees. 

The rain also sounds on our bedroom roof in regular and irregular beats, often like an alarm clock in the early morning. Our grandchildren once loved to lie in our bed and listen to the sound of rain beating on our roof while we watched movies together.

Each day, we awaken to a new gift of time. Buechner goes further, saying that the movements of a symphony teach us about the movements of our daily lives, streaming from one sound, one instrument, to another, often in repetition. Our favorite musicians and nature’s constant sounds help us keep time so these movements can flow through our lives. 

Sometimes, this stream of music in our lives slows just enough for us to see clearly the bottom of the stream and to live in the present moment at sunsets, graduations, the births of our children, weddings, funerals, and sacred liturgies. We realize the mystery of how time is timeless. This is living in Kairos time, God’s time, eternity.

I had a similar experience while writing my last book, Letters from My Grandfather, as I responded to letters my grandfather had written fifty and sixty years earlier. I experienced an absence of linear time and sensed a timelessness between us. Here, it was not music but writing that made time timeless.  

Joanna joannaseibert.com https://www.joannaseibert.com/

The Heroic First Steps on a Spiritual Journey

The Heroic First Steps on a Spiritual Journey

“The heroic first step of the journey is to step out of or over the edge of your boundaries, and it often must be taken before you know you will be supported. The hero’s journey has been compared to a birth; it begins warm and snug in a safe place, then a signal grows more insistent that it is time to leave. To stay beyond your time is to putrefy. Without the blood, searing, and pain, there is no new life.”—Diane Osbon in A Joseph Campbell Companion (N. Y.: HarperCollins, 1995).

People sometimes seek spiritual direction as they take that first step toward becoming the person God created them to be. It is a fork in the road, and they are always on the road less traveled. Sometimes the path is so undeveloped or uncared for that it becomes overgrown. Someone who has traveled that way before can only see a recognizable path. Therefore, we look for and need spiritual friends along the way.

Sometimes, someone may need to hold our hand just to get us started. At other times, we see the way after minimal help. Sometimes, we need a companion for a longer stretch until we become familiar with the path and adjust to its twists and turns. The journey and the first step are a birth, offering a multitude of opportunities for rebirth. Before hearing our new voice, we can always count on labor pains and a messy experience. Friends and family may have difficulty accepting our change, our new birth, and the unique path we are now on. 

Treasuring the journey instead of focusing on a goal can always keep us from straying from the path.

Thank you for supporting Camp Mitchell, our camp and conference center atop Petit Jean Mountain, by purchasing this book from the daily series of writings for the liturgical year, A Daily Spiritual Rx for Ordinary Time: Readings from Pentecost to Advent. All proceeds from book sales will benefit Camp Mitchell. If you enjoy this book, please take a moment to write a brief recommendation on its Amazon page. https://smile.amazon.com/Daily-Spiritual-Ordinary-Time-Pentecost/dp/B08JLTZYGH/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=joanna+seibert+books&qid=1621104335&sr=8-1

 More thank-yous than we can say!!!

Joanna  https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Photographer and Writer Eve Turek Talks about Fox-Walking

 Photographer and Writer Eve Turek talks about Fox-Walking

Guest Writer: Eve Turek

“Come, follow Me…” -Jesus (Mt. 4:19)

I have always defined “Christian” for myself as “Christ-follower.” I take that phrase both literally and spiritually.

Fox Tracks

In the mid-1980s, I became interested in animal tracks. I practiced identifying the tracks I saw in the sand. I tried to imagine how the animal might have moved and where it paused or lengthened its stride, based on its footprints. I quickly learned to recognize obvious tracks, like those of rabbits, mice, and raccoons. I puzzled over bug trails. I marveled at the many tracks fanning out from a single ghost crab hole. 

But my favorite tracks belong to my favorite animal: the fox.

Fox tracks are unusual in that they almost always occur in a straight line. Foxes’ normal gait exhibits a “perfect register” – their back paws land precisely where their front paws do, creating a single line of tracks. Their footprints speak to me of purpose and direction. I have tried to walk in a perfectly straight line. It’s not easy, especially in rough or uneven terrain. “Fox-walking” requires focus, concentration, and balance in the natural world. “Christ-walking” takes all of that in the spirit.

So, what stride, direction, and pace do I strive to maintain?

Simple, but not easy. Challenging and demanding both focus and balance, no matter the surrounding terrain or circumstances.

Love is what I strive to follow. The kind of love that says to love God with all you are and have, or, in Bible words, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Love. The kind of love that says, “Love your neighbor as you would love yourself.” And then, just so we don’t misunderstand, Love Himself gave us a story about “neighbor” being the least like us, the one we might more naturally despise or feel superior to. Love THAT one.

Love. The kind of love that says, “Love your enemies.” (Really? You have got to be kidding! How does an ordinary person do that?!?) Yes, those parenthetical sentences sum up the arguments I have tried to have with God many times.

 Over the decades, I have found an answer: I ask for healing, a blessing, forgiveness, restoration, and better choices. I ask to see as God sees, as a loving parent sees, who wants only and always the best for every child. 

I don’t, I’m sorry to say, always think in a perfect register. And I don’t always speak or walk in one either. However, I’m grateful to say that I’m very aware when I “step out of line.”

The idea of “fox-walking after Jesus” informs every conversation I have, every decision I make, and all my choices. It will guide my vote in the upcoming election. I will not vote for hatred or division, nor for any candidate who advocates despising others for any reason. Are there perfect people, perfect candidates, or a perfect nation? No. 

But I am determined to fox-walk, as best I can, in the life I have been granted, and for my part, that means trying, with focus and balance, to walk the walk of being a Christ-follower, not just talk the talk.

Eve Turek

Joanna Joannaseibert.com https://www.joannaseibert.com/