Do you think it’s possible? I wasn’t sure it could be done until I spent Christmas vacation focused entirely on family. After a joyfully chaotic week with 48 of our closest family members, our little unit of 4 headed home for a few days of quiet before vacation officially ended.
And then Yesterday happened. Yesterday, we experienced one of our best family days, maybe ever.
Three of the four of us never left our pajamas. There was reading, Catan family game playing, football watching, a little minecraft playing, a little tidying, gourmet dinner and dessert making, and no fighting. I repeat. No fighting! All because we didn’t have to be anywhere at any particular time. We could just BE together.
I was in the midst of trying to come up with a resolution for the year and these past few weeks reminded me that my family is the most important thing in my life.
This year, I’m slowing down time so that our little family can just BE.
I’m always a little ambitious when we enter the new year, but I think this one might just be achievable. Of course time won’t actually slow, but we can make it feel like it does, just by being present in the moment.
Chronos time will keep ticking by; the seconds, minutes, hours, and days adding up to build our next year. As the time passes, our family will continue to join in the march to school, work, sports practices, and completing household tasks, but chronos will be a backdrop to our lives this year.
Instead, we’ll be living on Kairos time: the time of possibility, the windows of time where grace happens, the moments that define our lives…God’s time.
Too many car rides have been spent worrying over my list of daily tasks instead of really listening while the kids tell me stories about their days. When I’m finally ready to listen, when I put my worry on pause, they’ve finished talking and the window has closed. The task list will never leave, but my kids’ voices will.
It’s time to put those voices first. Kairos moments will be the ones I seek out. These are the moments important enough to put the tasks that are scheduled in chronos time on hold. They’ll still get done, because those types of tasks always do, but Kairos moments take priority. Kairos wins in 2016.
The one, possibly most important, thing I realized these past two weeks is that when you make time for the Kairos moments, somehow there is magically more time in the day. Time slows down. Something happens when you seek out and recognize the joy surrounding you. Suddenly dishes don’t seem so bad. And laundry not that tedious. Kairos moments add just a touch of sparkle to the rest of your day, and sparkle is always worth the effort.
This year we’re living on Kairos time. Honestly, I can’t wait. It’s going to be hard. Really really hard. But if we succeed even once a day, or twice, just enough to let the Kairos moment happen, the sparkle will appear and time will slow just enough to let love win. Here’s to the longest year we’ll ever have…a Kairos filled 2016!
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Published by hollytrina
coffee drinker, sleep lover, occasional writer, and forever seeker of living a balanced Catholic life
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god forever tries 