Pandemic Reflections: Time

Quarantine for Covid-19 prompted me to start a writing practice called “27 Wildest Days,” led by the lovely, compelling writing professor Laurie Wagner (https://27powers.org/27-wildest-days).  Each day Laurie reads a poem twice and then gives a writing prompt.  Wagner encourages writing non-stop for 15 minutes, without judging or trying to choose the perfect words.  In this way, we bypass our critical mind and see what might be lurking in our unconscious.  Laurie says, “Who we are on the page leaks out into who we are in the world.” The practice has helped me examine my truths and other feelings percolating just beneath the surface. This week Laurie read Lynn Ungar’s poem “Pandemic” (http://www.lynnungar.com/poems/pandemic/).

In the Greek, there are two words for time, “chronos” and “kairos.”  Chronos is a quantifiable passing of the clock, going from one activity to the next-- the business of our lives.  Kairos is “holy” time, where God or the holy or grace break into our lives.  A moment where we gain a deeper understanding about our place in the world.  Sometimes in my 15 minutes of writing, only one nugget of wisdom or insight comes.  In a way, it is like prayer for me.  We are now in what I’ve been calling, “Pandemic Time” and think of it as the crevice between light and dark; a time where the clock at once stops and beats too fast.  A time when I invite paradoxical feelings like sorrow and hope to my table to commune for a while.  How do you define “Pandemic Time”?