Sometimes I see all the medication ads on TV and I wonder what's happening to us. Looking at the rates of our ailments, I ask myself if as we age, do we forget how to have fun? Perhaps Jesus' words, "Unless you become like little children you cannot experience the kingdom of heaven," are more literally true than we might think.
I've been reading a lot of Madeleine L'Engle lately. She fans the flames of imagination. Her understanding of time--chronos: the linear timeline which dictates our days, and kairos: the expansive, spacious experience of being that is beyond chronos--helps me see that living in the moment enables us to break free of time and simply live.
As life goes on, chronos tends to dominate. As we accrue more possessions and responsibilities, life gets filled up with managing things and jobs and people. Kairos comes in fragmented moments further and further apart until we may even forget there is a different space offered to all of us. When I hear myself decline the invitation to enter that space because I don't have "time", I often hear the Spirit ask me, "Well, what do you have time for, Rocky-boy?"
One of the things I most love about skiing is the overwhelming sense of "be here now."
Last winter, skiing in Utah, we got caught in a good old western blizzard. A group of us were traversing a mountain top ridge late in the day. This dark cloud moved in and just dumped on us. On top of 40 mph winds and blinding snow, it started to lightening! I've rarely felt more exposed or vulnerable.
We skied down off the ridge into the protection of a dense evergreen glade. Instantly the wind was quieted. We found ourselves in this magic place--gliding through snow blanketed pines, on a cushion of bottomless powder. You could hear the euphoric whoops of fellow skiers as they flew through this sacred haven.
The truth of Springsteen's words echoed through me, "It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive." Stopping with my ski partner in a clearing, no words were necessary, or maybe even possible. We were in a holy place.
Each of us are invited into this place. It will come in a different form for everyone. The more we seek and accept the gift offered, the more we are able to choose life. When the demands of life squeeze out our capacity for play, we are lesser people. If we aren't intentional in making time for play, it will happen less and less in our lives. We may discover that we have to learn how to have fun again.
So I ask, where do you go for fun? Where is that place, what is that activity that makes you rejoice in being alive? Make time for it, rediscover childhood joys. Jump in some puddles, go out dancing, grab a sled or some cross country skis and head out into a snowy day. Pick up an instrument, crank up the stereo, glide across the parking lot on your grocery cart, paint some pictures, pick up that woodworking project. Laugh! Let's get lost in kairos once in a while!
It ain't no sin to be glad we're alive!
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