“You are not too old and it is not too late to dive into your depths where life calmly gives out its own secret” ~Rilke
The photos in this collage were images that I liked when I took them and had no idea that I would use them this way. While I was actually putting them together in a way that would be aesthetically pleasing to me, I reflected on the question of time. Time was always something that I never seemed to have enough of. It always flew. Busyness was my whole life, day in and day out.. I wondered often when there might be some time for other pursuits. Many other women I know have felt the same way.
Well, at long last the time has come. As I put my photos together and manipulate them in different ways, I’m grateful for the time to do something fun for myself. When I take out my paint, markers, and paper, with the idea of making something new, I move into a different space completely. I spend hours at these different activities. Creative activity takes time. Senior Citizens come to a point in life where (if they live long enough) there is some time to be reflective and creative.
The Greeks had two words for time: Kronos and Kairos. Kronos was clock time or busy time and Kairos was quiet time or God’s time. It’s a great opportunity to have this kind of time. Many people ask older people how they pass their time and I have often wondered what they meant by this. Every age and stage of life has its own duties and responsibilities and there’s a time for everything. We can’t underestimate the fullness and usefulness of this time. We have to be grateful for this time and those not in this stage of life can be sure that the same time is coming for them.
Here is some information I found on the internet about this time:
“As usual, the Greeks were ahead of us in thinking and speaking about such conundrums. Where we use one word to describe a whole range of things, they had the good sense to use different words to mark distinctions in reality and in experience. For example, they had three different words for the experience of love — eros for possessive love, philia for friendly love, and agape for sacrificial love. Not surprisingly, the Greeks had two words for marking the differences between the experiences of time — kronos and kairos.
Kronos (or cronos in the English spelling, from which we take our word chronology) is sequential time. Kronos is the time of clocks and calendars; it can be quantified and measured. Kronos is linear, moving inexorably out of the determinate past toward the determined future, and has no freedom. Kairos is numinous time. Kairos is a time of festivals and fantasies; it cannot be controlled or possessed. Kairos is circular, dancing back and forth, here and there, without beginning or ending, and knows no boundaries.”
Hope you like the collage that came out of this time. Enjoy all of your time!
Bibliography and additional reading: