Time Crunches

“I've been on a calendar, but I've never been on time.”

Marilyn Monroe



Do you live in the present moment? Chances are that at this very moment you are doing several things...surfing the web, cooking dinner, thinking about your bills, your laundry, your life. Whatever you are doing now, there is always something else you could-should-would be doing, and surely all would be acheived if-only you had the time.

Time is a tricky thing, and largely exists in the eye of the beholder. Remember when you were a kid and time just seemed to crawl? Now the older you get, the faster and faster time moves forward, hurling us towards the invitable: old age and death. It's no wonder we procrastinate when every step forward feels like one step closer to the end.

The truth is no one knows when that end may come. A few years ago I lost my brother. He was 32 years old and it forever changed the way that I look at my time on earth. When I am stuck in the past or daydreaming of a brighter future, I remember this little saying and it helps me to put things into perspective:

The Past is history,

The Future, a mystery,

Today is a gift,

That's why they call it the Present.

So carpe diem! The day is yours so cherish it like the precious gift that it is. Here are some ways you can honor your time and make more of it:

  • Slow Down
  • Concentrate on one thing at a time
  • Make whatever you are doing at the moment the most important thing in the world
  • Pretend you do have all the time in the world and spirit will make it so
  • Create "sacred time" in your life and make a commitment to yourself to keep it

A good way to start having more time is to start affirming it is true. Next time you hear yourself say "I don't have enough time, try countering those thoughts with some new ideas. Make "I am always in the right place, doing the right thing, at the right time," your mantra. This is most helpful when you are running late...instead of anticipating an agitated response when you arrive, or running through your list of excuses for being late, repeat your affirmation.

I found that once I began letting go of being on time and making excuses for being late...I stopped being late! By always knowing I was "in the right place doing the right thing at the right time" I relaxed and the world seemed to open up and support my beliefs. The traffic magically lifted, the parking space opened up right in front, and time became less important to manuevering through my daily life.

When you hurry through life, rushing from one appointment to the next, you have no idea what wonderful subtextures you miss in the blur. It's not just taking the time to smell the flowers...It's having the time of your life and living it too. Hurry, and cramming as many activities as possible into time, are a distinctively American disease, and are something I would encourage anyone (not just the bright) to step out of. Move to a slower tempo, or no measured tempo. Life is too short to live in a hurry.

It's About Time

Since the dawn of Time, we've tried to understand its nature in order to feel like we had some control over it.
Time's mystery is difficult for most of us to appreciate because we seem to have so little of it. Although we've been all given the same twenty-four hours each day, it doesn't seem to go very far, and we each seem to have a different reality when it comes to time.

For centuries those with time on their hands - saints, poets, mystics, masters, sages, and philosophers - have pondered time's enigma. They've discovered her duality. As the sculptor and poet Henry Van Dyke explains: "Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice". Einstein proved the relativity of time, it's perspective reality. Slow and swift are time's parallel identities, the yin and yang of existence.

The Greeks had two words for time. Chronos and Kairos. Chronos is the base word for chronological. It is the time we measure by clocks and calendars and is always linear, orderly, quantifiable and mechanical. Kairotic time is organic, rhythmic, bodily, leisurely and aperiodic; it is the inner cadenc of life. Sam Keen tells us:

"The realm of spirit operates on Kairotic rather than chronological time...There is no way to cultivate your soul in a hurry...the habit of rushing destroys the long and gentle rhythms of breathing that are necessary for inspired thinking and surrendering to the suprising opportunities that appear as soon as we stop trying to fit our lives into a plan.

We are looking for a marriage of Chronos and Kairos, not abstinence from either. Fast and slow time are the right and left hemispheres of the incarnate spirit. Be leisurely and act vigorously."

We exist in chronos. We long for Kairos. That's our duality. Chronos requires speed so that it won't be wasted. Kairos requires space so that it might be savored. We do in chronos. In kairos we are allowed to be.

Kairos is delicately woven into Chronos. The seasons are the fabric of Kairos wrapped around our lives. Though time moves forward in a linear fashion, it is cyclical. The wheel turns and comes around and around with another opportunity to experience the depth of our existence. Moving closer to the hub, time is measured in weeks...six days then a pause for spirit. Closer still are the days. 12 hours then a pause for sleep. Moving down to the hours, minutes, and seconds that are made up by moments...each an opportunity to be fully present and alive.

We know kairos in those moments: when meditating or praying; when lost in music's rapture or literature's reverie; when planting bulbs or inhaling deeply of a flowers fragrance; when watching over a sleeping child, when laughing over the comics together in bed on a rainy morning;, when delighting in a sunset; when exulting in our passions. We know joy in kairos, glimpse beauty in kairos, remember what it means to be alive in kairos, reconnect with our Divinity in kairos.

It only takes a moment to cross over from chronos into kairos, but it does take a moment. All that kairos asks is our willingness to stop long enough to hear the music of the spirit. Today, be willing to join in the dance.


The Daffodil Principle:

A Timely Tale

Several times my daughter, Carolyn, had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come see the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. "I will come next Tuesday," I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call.

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren, I said, "Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!"

My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this all the time, Mother." "Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears, and then I'm heading for home!" I assured her. "I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car," she said. "How far will we have to drive?" "Just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "I'll drive. I'm used to this." After several minutes, I had to ask, "Where are we going? This isn't the way to the garage!" "We're going to my garage the long way," Carolyn smiled, "by way of the daffodils." "Carolyn," I said sternly, "please turn around." "It's all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."

After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign that read, "Daffodil Garden." We got out of the car and each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow. Each different colored variety was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.

"But who has done this?" I asked Carolyn. "It's just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home." Carolyn pointed to a well kept "A" frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory.

We walked up to the house. On the patio, we saw a poster. "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking!" was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and very little brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958." There it was, The Daffodil Principle.

For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun one bulb at a time-to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top. Still, just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world. This unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of ineffable (indescribable) magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.

The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration. That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time, often just one baby step at a time, and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world. "It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I, forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put this to use today?" -Author Unknown

We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough and we'll be more content when they are. After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, when we are able to go on a nice vacation, or when we retire. The truth is there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. Ah, thought you'd like this one, it's true to life and all that applies! Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with... and remember that time waits for none. So, stop waiting until...your car or home is paid off...you get a new car or home...your kids leave the house...you go back to school...you finish school...you lose 10 lbs...you gain 10 lbs...you get married...you get a divorce...you have kids...you retire...summer...spring...winter...fall...you die...There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination. So work like you don't need money. Love like you've never been hurt. And, dance like no one's watching.

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CrescentMoon's Tarot & Dreams


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