The Luxury of Time

Orange Mound Spring in Mammoth Hot Springs at Yellowstone National Park. Image taken in July 2016.

This is Orange Spring Mound.  It is being formed by the combination of volcanic activity, mineral deposits, hot water, various bacteria, and algae.  But there is one ingredient that is usually ignored, time!  The beauty of this hot spring has depended on centuries of geological activity and the process continues.

Orange Mound Spring. Image taken in October 2005.

This is a picture of the same formation taken in October of 2005.  You can see 15 years has continued to enhance the beauty of this creation.

Theologians and philosophers think of time in two ways using Greek words to delineate them, kairos vs. kronos.     Kairos is experienced as the moment, now.  Kronos is felt as sequential, or chronological time.  Kairos is made up solely of moments as they occur.  Kronos includes past, present, and future.  There is a temptation to embrace one or the other experiences of time as the “real time.”  Some writers argue that time, kairos, is simply an eternal moment, outside of sequential time.  The past is gone, and the future does not exist. Others argue that eternity is a meaningful philosophical idea and all that exists is past, present, and future.  However, I find great meaning in seeing kairos and kronos as a paradox that opens up the “real world” as a place of great mystery and wonder.  Time is both/and, not either/or.

The Orange Spring Mound serves as a good example.  As I stood in front to the formation I marveled at all that it presented to me.  The shades of color seemed to change in intensity as the clouds created shade and sunlight. Whiffs of slightly rotten egg aroma would come and go as the winds gently swirled around it.  The subtle sound of water cascading down the sides would ebb and flow as the hot spring bubbled up from the depths.  Each moment would reveal something new and mysterious.  Each moment was a marvel and felt eternal, self-contained within themselves.  Each one was complete and perfect just as they appeared and transformed into the next.

And then my curiosity began to kick in as I tried to better understand this moment.  There was more to this hot spring than a kairos, more than that moment in the sun.  There was an unhurriedness about time that invited me into a patient celebration of the process itself, the kronos of the experience.  It allowed me to experience the unfolding of this hot spring from what was, into what is, and then into what it might be in the future.

These hot springs grow and change over time.  As the two images above reveal, the shape and color of this mound has changed.  It is formed by superheated water picking up minerals in the earth’s crust and depositing them when the water runs off or evaporates from the surface.  The primary mineral is limestone and so the formation is primarily white.  However, other minerals can add subtle shades of color.  The more brilliant colors are formed in the channels of water by algal-bacterial mats.  The color is determined by which algae and bacteria comprise the mats.  The specific algae and bacteria depend on a specific mix of alkalinity, temperature, and presence of chemicals in the water itself.  Blue-green algae require different conditions than certain bacteria that need different temperatures and a lower or higher level of methane dissolved in the water.  As these conditions change over time, the shape, color, and aroma of this formation has changed.  When we look at this mound through both kairos and kronos we have a more wondrous experience of it.

Both kairos and kronos have their own story to tell about our world.  They both reveal different facets of the diamond of reality.  The broaden or experience by helping us to appreciate and enjoy the world with our whole being, body-mind-soul.  Kairos encourages us to open our senses and our soul to the moment and be truly present to it.  It allows us the opportunity to become lost in and participate in the mystery and wonder of life.  Kronos invites us into engaging the world with our mind so that we can learn from it.  Kronos allows us to imagine a past and future by creating and sharing stories around these wondrously eternal moments.

Therefore, if we truly want to live in gratitude and be filled with the wonder that comes from the mystery around us, we need to enjoy the luxury of time.  We need to luxuriate in time as we experience both kairos and kronos.  By allowing ourselves to bask in the moment of life and then allow our curiosity to explore the insights and questions that arise, we bathe our body-mind-soul is the wonder of time itself.  The luxury of time allows these wonders to develop and make it possible to bask in and share the wonder and mystery of life as it flows out of them.

May each of us learn to enjoy the luxury of time in each precious moment of our lives.

“The timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness. And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.”   ~Kahlil Gibran

Blessings,

Bob

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