Now is the Time

Sometimes your ability to clearly express your thoughts is limited by the vocabulary of the linguistic world that you inhabit. In English, for example, this is especially the case when it comes to temporal expressions since we have to make do with only one word 'time'. Greek, for example, on the other hand, has two words chronos and kairos. Chronos corresponds quite closely to our day to day notion of time, that is, of time as sequential, numerical, and chronological. It is this time that we measure with a clock (or a 'chronometer'), and is orderly and predictable. Therefore, according to this understanding of time, today's date is January 1.

Kairos, on the other hand, cannot quite be translated into English with a single word, but refers to a period of time when something special or unique happens : it is the right moment, the critical stage, or the opportune time. Kairos time is that which marks out a period of disruption in the normal flow of events, a time when the ground is shifting, and the old habits and beliefs are undergoing a change. In this sense, we think of January 1 (otherwise just a point or a dot on the calendar) as a 'new way', or a 'new opening'.