As Christmas arrives, a time of reflection for many on a holy birth, I ponder the way we as society attune at birth today. All human experiences are culturally and historically determined, including birth. Birth as with all other human experience and understanding is contextual. As Gadamer contends we are viewing and knowing the world from an inescapable effective historical consciousness. We are in a way continually walking into our past. I argue like others that birth is not purely physiological but enmeshed in its own unique context. Therefore to explore any phenomenon at birth is at once to address all of birth, past and present which at the same time is connected to future possibilities. There are constant hints from history that gesture towards birth as significant fusing with contemporary horizons of understanding and possible futures. That is to say that how we tune into, tune in or attune at birth reveals how birth is understood.
Tag Archive | reflection
My foray into blogging begins
Hi all
well I made it to blogging! I love twitter but sometimes I just have more to say than a sentence can convey. So here I go – brave new world…
I’m not sure how this will evolve but I expect like all other things in life it will unfold and provide unexpected surprises. My first thoughts were “where will I find the time?” I dare say it will find its way into a space when I would have watched a silly TV show or spaced out in a novel. The ability of humans to be reflective and self-reflect is exciting. In reflective moments when we slow the world there is a possibility that things previously pre-reflective and thus hidden will arrive in a moment of insight from no where and everywhere. This blog is my avenue to explore, share and gesture towards pre-reflective taken for granted meanings in life.
My site is named ‘Kairos time – moments of insight‘, a timeless time in which something just beyond prior knowing springs forth and surprises. This is my space to share such times with you in the hope that a dialogue can bubble up!
Life can deliver a jolt to our sensibilities that reveal in an instant just how extraordinary life is! Being at the birth of another human being is one such moment. Yet everyday life has always held so much meaning.
“Earth cannot escape heaven
Flee it by going up,
or flee it by going down,
heaven still invades the earth,
it energizes it,
makes it sacred” (Meister Eckhart – lived: 1260-1329)
There is always something to discern in the invisible sacred layers of life, a richness of meaningful inspiring purpose not ordinarily expressed that dwells quiescent in the words, letters, doings and complexity of life. The challenge is always then to bring such moments of kairos to words for sharing with others.
I inhabit, as we all do, a sensuous world that lives, breathes, moves constantly with meaning. Meaning that continuously reaches out and touches as we reach out and touch life’s mystery. To write like this is to take a pause, to stop and trust whatever will arrive.
Life’s purpose and intelligence beckons me to be with others wherever they may be in meaningful and relational ways. Everything conjoins from the past and future into this present moment of writing – everything at this precious moment rests in an eternal now. As I gaze out of my Auckland home office onto the native bush, hear the Tuis (Native NZ birds) sing their exquisite melody, see the breeze playing with the leaves on the trees, the fragrance of orange blossoms flow into my experience, the dancing ripples of water as the tide re-enters the estuary beside my home and the warm tingling on my skin of the evening spring sun, there is also a growing awareness that my mouth is dry and my stomach desires food and I realize in this moment of pause that I am invited with others into a moment of conscious knowing. This is a felt-space of unseen depths that surrounds us, holds us and embraces all our senses.
Take a pause – it always seems to bring remembrance that life is so interesting and amazingly interconnected.
Dr Susan Crowther 