As we head into the busiest season of \u00a0the year, we asked guest blogger Dorothy Bass to reflect with us about the times of our life. <\/i><\/p>\n
So many of us yearn for lives that are balanced, but there never seems to be enough time.<\/p>\n
Pressures are real. \u00a0There is no denying that, especially at this time of year. \u00a0However, worrying only about how much time we have can lead us to overlook the many and varied shapes time takes in our lives. \u00a0And this oversight can add to our distress.<\/p>\n
Time is not monochromatic. \u00a0Each unit does not tick by with the same value and meaning as the others. \u00a0Each of us lives by several calendars. \u00a0We live in several kinds<\/i> of time, each with its own pace, value, and structure. \u00a0Consider these, for example:<\/p>\n
The rhythms of nature. \u00a0Night and day. \u00a0Morning and evening. \u00a0Winter, spring, summer, and fall, which take distinct and beautiful forms here in Northwest Indiana. \u00a0How might honoring the transitions inherent in nature\u2014daybreak, nightfall, seasonal change\u2014help us to find our bearings as human beings and treasure the gifts of nature?<\/p>\n
The rhythms of our bodies. \u00a0Our bodies are part of nature and share in many of the rhythms just mentioned. \u00a0We need rest each day; we rely on seasons as farmers bring forth food. And we have different family obligations and move at different speeds at different chronological points in life.<\/p>\n
Internet time. \u00a0This kind of time offers\u2014and seems to demand\u2014unceasing access to work, entertainment, shopping, and more. \u00a0It runs 24\/7\/365. \u00a0It provides some benefits (including some that are supposedly time-saving) but getting immersed in Internet time to too great an extent means missing out on the gifts of the other kinds of time listed here. \u00a0Day? \u00a0Night? \u00a0What?<\/p>\n
The academic calendar. \u00a0Some weeks and months are overwhelmingly busy. \u00a0Others provide respite, at least to most faculty and staff. \u00a0Some weeks are full of hope and promise; others seem laden with worry and judgment; most are a mix of the two. \u00a0When drowning in a difficult period (like the weeks between Thanksgiving break and first semester finals), it is easy to forget that academic time is cyclical and renewable.<\/p>\n
Sacred rhythms. \u00a0Religious traditions engage time in ways that mark certain seasons, days, and hours with special meaning. \u00a0In doing so, they invite believers to step into a kind of freed time that is not bound by the exigencies of the Internet or the workplace. \u00a0Christians are now in the season of Advent, a time of simplicity and urgent expectation when holy texts call us to \u201cStay Awake!\u201d so that we can notice and prepare for God\u2019s coming into this world. \u00a0When Muslims are called to prayer five times each day, they acknowledge the supremacy of Allah in their lives. \u00a0\u00a0The most important rhythm of Judaism is shaped by the Sabbath, a weekly day of freedom marked by rest and worship. \u00a0In these and other traditions, sacred rhythms summon practitioners again and again into heightened awareness of the presence of God.<\/p>\n
What other ways of organizing time shape your life? \u00a0Anniversaries? \u00a0Sports seasons? \u00a0Civic life? \u00a0Visitation schedules?<\/p>\n
Identifying these multiple calendars may at first glance seem to add more demands to our lives. \u00a0But these calendars operate differently from the electronic ones that track obligations and sound alarms when a meeting is coming up. \u00a0Sure, we need those calendars too. \u00a0But the calendars I name above set our lives in richer temporal contexts, structuring time in ways that we did not ourselves create. \u00a0As such, awareness of these rhythms can help us to be more aware of the gifts time brings. \u00a0When one calendar overwhelms\u2014perhaps the academic calendar just now?\u2014pause to notice the beauty of daybreak or nightfall. \u00a0Receive the simplicity of Advent as challenge and opportunity. Go to bed earlier as nights grow longer. \u00a0And look forward in hope to other parts of each calendar, even the academic one.<\/p>\n
___________________<\/p>\n
Dorothy Bass is the author of Receiving the Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time ( <\/i>http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Receiving-Day-Christian-Practices-Opening\/dp\/0787956473<\/i><\/a>).<\/i><\/p>\n This week, she and other participants in the Lilly Fellows Program are reading together Abraham Joshua Heschel\u2019s spiritual classic The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (<\/i>http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Sabbath-Classics-Abraham-Joshua-Heschel\/dp\/0374529752<\/i><\/a>).<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By CITAL Guest blogger: Dorothy Bass, Director, Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith As we head into the busiest season of \u00a0the year, we asked guest blogger Dorothy Bass to reflect with us about the times of our life. So many of us yearn for lives that are balanced, but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-17301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-32"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"kim.pomeroy@valpo.edu","author_link":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/author\/kim-pomeroyvalpo-edu\/"},"featured_img":null,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"Profile":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"kim.pomeroy@valpo.edu","author_link":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/author\/kim-pomeroyvalpo-edu\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By CITAL Guest blogger: Dorothy Bass, Director, Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith As we head into the busiest season of \u00a0the year, we asked guest blogger Dorothy Bass to reflect with us about the times of our life. So many of us yearn for lives that are balanced, but…","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["2015<\/a>"],"unlinked":["2015<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 10 years ago","modified":"Updated 10 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on December 7, 2015","modified":"Updated on December 7, 2015"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on December 7, 2015 9:21 pm","modified":"Updated on December 7, 2015 9:21 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17301"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=17301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}