Time ∞ Focus: Held in Peace

Inspiration sometimes arrives at the oddest time (pun intended), having to ask a waiter at a restaurant if he could lend me his pen and bring me some paper. A few scribbles later on the back of a receipt, the aha moment, that has led to me writing this musing. I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of time. We are here on this planet for such a brief period, yet we carry so much within us, our purpose, for those who have discovered why they were brought here to do a specific thing or carry a message, though many are still searching.

Lately, I have noticed how AI has created a warped sense of time. Its speed, its capacity, its relentless development - all of it can leave me clinging to an appreciation for the journey to do the research, do the grunt work, the energy and time-consuming labour that grounds us in reality.

In a world drowning in content and noise, cutting through to what truly matters requires focus. I have realised there’s a profound link between focus and time: focus creates time. Time is the means through which we fulfill our purpose, and that can only be done together.

The ancient Greeks understood two types of time: chronos which is the quantitative, the sequential hours and minutes that we measure and chase, and kairos, the qualitative moments of opportune time, when everything aligns for meaningful action. While many people remain trapped in chronos, frantically chasing time, goals, etc., what we truly need is to inhabit kairos.

If we set aside the fears around AI, be it the emissions, the resource consumption, the job displacement, something else emerges. As someone brilliantly said to me today: AI will give people back time to be in nature. A beautiful new perspective!

Perhaps it can free us from the tyranny of chronos to rediscover kairos.

At the heart of all this is a simple truth: focus and time can only be pursued when a person is at peace. That quiet space allows for focus, and it shifts us from chronos into kairos. Just as a change in our heart’s rhythm creates disequilibrium, so too does losing our internal rhythm disrupt everything else.

May we find the strength to balance our lives, to discover the rhythm that restores our focus, and to reclaim the time we need to fulfill our purpose in this lifetime with an open heart.

16 November 2025