When the Sky is Pink

We should not try to understand Earth Time through a lens based in linear time, for there is a danger in intellectualizing the process and experience that is Earth Time. We must instead try to relate to Earth Time through non-mental constructs: the body, the senses, our own cycles, and ultimately the heart.  Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee

What would life be like without a clock or calendar? At least the kind of clock and calendar we use in Western societies.  What if we lived according to Earth time? Or Kairos time?  Maybe Earth and Kairos time are one in the same.  

When my son was about five years old, we were standing outside at twilight and talking about a time when he and his friend could get together to play.  He looked up at the sky and asked if they could play, “When the sky is pink.”  Francisco’s question warmed my heart because it reflected his deep and natural attunement to the world around him. It was an entirely relational way of moving through his day.  I also felt a twinge of sadness knowing that all too soon he would be forced to adhere to an experience of time that would be one directional. 

I heard a similar story in a book I read by a Lakota author and descendant of Sitting Bull, the historic Native American leader of the 19^th century.  In the book he recounts the story of Sitting Bull responding to a question he was asked about when something should happen.  Sitting Bull’s response was, “When the frost melts.” Who knows how long this could’ve been.  Even Sitting Bull did not know precisely when the frost would melt.  Maybe it was a cold winter and Spring would be delayed.  Then again winter could have been shortened by a premature thaw.  The point is that this sense of intimacy with the seasons and cycles of life moves us from linear living that can be focused on action and decision making to a way of living this is centered on discernment and a way of being.

If we need another example, we can look no further than the Church’s liturgical calendar that has an entirely different basis for its order.  Designed to move us through celebrating and commemorating the life of Jesus Christ, Mary, the saints and many other memorials throughout the Church’s history.  This complex way of ordering time helps us journey ever more deeply into our faith as we discover new dimensions with each year based on what is happening in our personal lives and the world. 

Today, Pope Francis invites us, through the encyclical Laudato Si’ and other writings, to take up and weave together both the Church’s expression of time that is root in the life of Christ, and the sense of time that we experience in and with nature.  These are not separate at all as Jesus is God Creator incarnate and creation is divine expression of the Creator’s handiwork.

This year marks the 10^th anniversary of Laudato Si’ (Pentecost 2015).  May this anniversary reinvigorate our sense of wonder and awe in each other, the world, and the Creator.