Third Thursday - Day Fourteen

Sometimes it is about the destination...
Today started out very early. I went to bed at 1 am Winnipeg time and my alarm was set for 3:15. I actually woke up before any of the three alarms went off and I never did get the wake-up call I had asked for - but probably because I was down in the lobby to checkout before the scheduled wake up time.

There's a strange thing that happens in Winnipeg airport. The first flight out is at 5:10 am for Toronto, but security does not open until 4:10 am. This results in a really long line of people waiting to go through security when they arrive up to two hours before their flight. I stood there, number twenty-five in the line thinking about the sleep I could have had instead of the time spent in a lineup which was not moving.

You could almost say that the last minute price I found for this set of flights on Wednesday morning was providential because the Toronto flight was absolutely full. In fact the gate agents were turning standby passengers away on a regular basis. So I don't know if I got a discounted seat because it was the last one, but I certainly appreciate the fact that the cost of my flight was considerably less expensive than when I first started looking at the beginning of the week.
We arrived in Toronto in spectacular weather - sunny and mild.

Kairos and Chronos time are on my mind this evening as I ponder the events of the day. It really is hard to believe that the description I wrote above is a description of this day. It seems at least as if it happened yesterday. The dividing point between chronos and kairos happened in the couple of hours between arriving at my sister's house and our departure for Coboconk and the funeral for my grandmother.

The time with family during and after the funeral was certainly kairos time - God's time. Not in the depth or meaning of the service, although it was fine, but just in the time of reconnection with family members. Some of the people there I have not seen for probably twenty-five years.
And yet in many ways, reconnecting with them was in many cases just as if I had seen them just last week. That's how it can be in families sometimes. And it certainly was that way with Grandma - every time I saw her it was so low-key in the same sense - namely that it was if we had seen each other just recently.

I have another long trip tomorrow - but hopefully with a bit more sleep this time - and therefore more time to do some deeper reflection on all that's happened in these three days.

And that pretty much sums up what I have to say this evening.

Photo to come....