2021: Creating a Lexicon of Future

K is for Kairos

A Wrinkle in Time is one of the books that had immense influence on my world view. As I was researching the word ‘kairos’, I learned that there are 5 books in the Kairos series, published between 1962 and 1989.

Kairos Series: A Wrinkle in Time, 1962; A Wind in the Door, 1973; A Swiftly Tilting Planet, 1978; Many Waters, 1986; An Acceptable Time, 1989

Weirdly, this is a pretty good example of the meaning of the word:

Kairos: the perfect, delicate, crucial moment; the fleeting rightness of time and place that creates the opportune atmosphere for action, words or movement.

More from Madeline L’Engle

That time which breaks through chronos with a shock of joy, that time we do not recognize while we are experiencing it, but only afterwards, because kairos has nothing to do with chronological time. In kairos we are completely unselfconscious, and yet paradoxically far more real than we can ever be when we’re constantly checking our watches for chronological time.

The saint in contemplation, lost to self in the mind of God is in kairos. The artist at work is in kairos. The child at play, totally thrown outside herself in the game, be it building a sand castle or making a daisy chain, is in kairos. In kairos we become what we are called to be as human beings, co-creators with God, touching on the wonder of creation. ~ Madeline L’Engle, Circle of Quiet