Time Squared

Wow can time rev up and move on leaving me in its wake! The only explanation I have for being away from my blog is that our family is going through several big transitions that I’ll be writing about in future posts. This is all exciting yet head-spinning. A few days ago my heart cried out, “Stop this thing! I want to get off!”

I read years ago in a business publication, that there are two different types of time, chronos and mythos. Chronos time is linear, definable, and countable. Here are some examples. “Meet me at 9:00.” “We eat dinner at 6:00.” “On June 7th we’re having friends to visit.” Mythos time is something else entirely. Mythos time is non-linear, hard to define, and hard to grasp. Mythos time explains why a vacation week sweeps by so much more quickly than a week having the flu. The gist of the article was that excellent executives know, or learn, how to move smoothly between and take advantage of the two.

When I read the article, I was a public administrator. Shortly after reading the article I became a mother. When I was a public administrator, I power walked the straight path of chronos time. Oh what discipline, pride, and comfort! When I became a mommy, I plunged into the swirling sea of mythos time. I left my false discipline, pride, and comfort behind. For example, I learned that to succeed in breastfeeding, I needed to not look at the clock. I learned that to gain rest, I needed to be resourceful and not count on eight hours straight between ten and six. I learned that time can stop when my daughter stared into my eyes.

Mythos time became Mommy time. I didn’t keep a calendar. I didn’t wear a watch. I didn’t plan much at all. I nursed my baby. I slept with my baby. I savored my time with her. Floating in pure mythos time doesn’t happen often in life, I’ve learned. It is a gift. Mythos time is God’s time.

How was my time spent these past few weeks? I was wrestling with chronos time, meeting unusual time commitments, and mythos time, meeting unusual people needs and happenstances. I was called to trust that my well-planned days and weeks needed to be put aside to swim in the uncertainty of God’s will for me. The rush is over...I think. I’m tentatively planning to get back to our usual routine, full of chronos time aides. We’ll see what God has planned for me.