Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
Kairos time
“Kairos” is an ancient Greek word meaning the right, critical, or opportune moment. Then there’s “chronos”, the Greek word for time that passes moment by moment. As I understand it, Kairos is an epiphany that happens while chronos ticks along. This little discussion started after a blog I wrote on how joy can burst on the scene when least expected. That blog came from one of Richard Rohr’s morning meditations that I have since saved along with some other Rohr meditations that are meaningful for me. Anyway, my friend, Loyce, commented , “Isn’t that the Kairosian moment you mentioned before?”
Not at all. I replied that I didn’t know what “kairosian” meant and left it at that. I didn’t bother to look it up, which surprises me because me and Google are very close friends and I usually whip out my phone and become a googlemaniac on the spot. Last night I stopped to get the mail, which was mostly circulars and other junk. I noticed a rectangular red card, a handmade postcard, from Loyce. It is a little treasure trove of information about Kairosian time, and how Richard Rohr refers to it as a moment of wonder and joy. “We live in Kairos time when we stop rushing around, turn away from our clocks and calendars, become still and experience profound joy in the moment. It’s the moments that matter.” Richard Rohr.
Not all Kairosian moments are made up of profound joy. There are times when a sought after insight bursts on the scene, sometimes with no warning. I’ve had those moments and wondered what combination of brain chemicals and electrical signals and spiritual portals have brought up such a thought – like the moment I realized that I was done with being a nurse and more than ready to retire and find a different occupation. That literally happened in a split second as I was watching the sun rise over the mountains around Santa Fe. I remember the initial shock of realization followed by the absolute sense that this was the next right thing to do. I also felt a surge of relief at the idea that I could respectfully leave my chosen career of 46 years. Prior to this epiphany, (another Greek word meaning appearance or manifestation), I had not thought of myself as anything but a working member of the nursing sorority. My Jan says being a nurse is like being in the mafia – you know too much so you can never leave…
I’m not saying that I never thought about retirement prior to that moment. I had simply been a nurse for so long that it had not occurred to me that I could be anything else. But I had started volunteering for an immigration attorney who ran a DACA clinic for young people, and my time as a nurse with mostly Hispanic kids had taught me a little about living without documents in the United States of America. I had been on a trip to the border with my church. I had watched a horrifying DVD called “The Six Hundred Mile Wall”. This wall was built deliberately along a portion of the US/Mexico border. It’s purpose was to leave an open border with passage into the Sonoran desert, where hundreds, if not thousands, of immigrants lost their lives in the rough, blazingly hot, waterless environment. It was believed that people would not dare enter the United States through the deadly landscape. In fact, people did try because they are desperate enough to risk their lives in order to find a better one.
Almost nine years later I find myself in a second career that started with a suggestion from my first immigration attorney friend. We were traveling back to Santa Fe, from Dilley, TX, after a week of pro bono work at a detention center filled with women and children caught trying to cross over. She told me how to go about getting accredited as a paralegal, and the rest is history.
So this has been my morning musing and my limited education about Kairos, an enchanting Greek word. I’ll end with this: OPA!!!