why share?

Sharing. That's what blogs and Facebooks and Twitters are all about. Sharing something of yourself for others to see.

Why do we do it? 

I don't claim to know all the answers even for why I do it, let alone others. But maybe it has to do with weaving. I weave a community by the words and pictures I share. I create a reality, a story, a world into which others can enter and become part of my story, as I become part of theirs. And so as I share something of what is important to me, I also partcipate in weaving fine webs that hold people together, connected to  one another.

To my amazement I keep finding that even the kind of "lightweight" sharing that takes place in FB actually creates a platform for friendship to happen and to be maintained active. There are people who write about their mundane life so interestingly taht even my dull and normal days get gilded with humor through their experiences.

Lately I have also become aware what a potent way of encouragement  this sharing is. In following some of my friends blogs and FB updates I have found what the old Italian saying talks about:

                                             

                                         Mal comune - mezzo gaudio!

Even the greatest pain and the saddest sadness actually get less heavy to bear when you know that someone is going through the same, or that at least they (try to) understand, or are at least willing to read/listen what you have to share. 

I think we were created to go through life together,  sharing stuff  - and that's why we do it!

peeling scabs

I have always liked speed. Fast cars, airplanes, boats, bike rides... you name it, and if it makes the air whistle in your ears and tousles your hair, I like it. And I've never been very patient with anything slow. 

And now I find that even this sea-change is not and cannot be the whirlwind (I love the sound of this word :) experience I thought it should or could be.

Somebody has likened having your heart broken to open-heart surgery, and as our brains seem to process emotional pain in the same place as physical pain, it is no wonder that these past 3 years I have often felt like a convalescent surgery-patient. The recovery process simply takes a lot more time and is way more profound than I had thought. Many times I've asked like kids in the back-seat of the car, "Are we there yet?" and made almost exactly the same sound of "mgmgngngnnaafhmpf" when I've realized the answer is no.

So, slowly, I've learned to give myself the permission to take the time I need to heal and not to be embarrassed about it. 

And I'm learning to be patient with the slow thing that is called me and my no-longer-bleeding-but-still-at-times-aching heart. 

The most amazing thing seems to happen as a consequence: as I let go of the expectations I have on myself, and stop peeling the scab off the wounds of my heart (you know the way we did as kids? I still have scars to show that that really doesn't help the healing to be quicker at all), the miraculous takes place... left alone in the silent velvety darkness of my heart, the seeds of joy, life, peace and laughter hidden in my heart have had the space to grow, and all of a sudden I find that I'm truly alive again, and that the night is passing...

and so time picks up speed again... :)

Aslan has roared and Spring is on its way!

time: kairos vs chronos

At the beginning of this year I was struck again by the different notions of time and how life simply doesn't follow the chronological ordering of time.

Life flows not only by days, weeks and years, but is also marked by once-in-a-lifetime events, chance meetings of utter significance, special encounters, eureka! moments. And they cannot be ordered to come. Chronology can be planned, but these special times cannot. The ancient Greeks called this other kind of time 'kairos'.

'Kairos' moments cannot be fabricated or had at a whim, they seem to be more in the line of something that interrupts the 'chronos' of our normal life, and brings a challenge to change in its wake.

So much of my life as a researcher revolves around 'chronos': deadlines, extensions of grants etc, but yet, the substance of my research comes from those 'kairos' moments periods of time.

Wikipedia says, "In rhetoric kairos is "a passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved."

The connotation there is that not only is there a window of opportunity, but that skill is also needed to use it, to actually achieve that which the specific time-bound opportunity makes possible for one to achieve. In built in 'kairos' is the idea of the "right time" for something to happen.

I find myself this spring in such a time in my research, in a season where it truly will be possible to write what I have so long carried in me. But in order to be successful, I must take hold of the crucial time, lest it passes.

'Kairos' has many more meanings too, and it is an integral part of Christian theology as well, the Eternal intersects the temporal at 'kairos' times.

What ever the kind of 'kairos' given to us this coming chronological year, may we not miss even one them!

NOW is the right time!