Blessing Blackburn Musical ~ Installment 1

“A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” (Ecclesiastes 3:4)

Guest Blogger ~ Marie Sheahan Brown

Sunday, 3/25/12
1:15 am in Blackburn, Scotland

In the fullness of time, Susan Boyle was ready for the world, and the world was ready for Susan. This is kairos time – God’s time – which interacts with but is not governed by the chronos time that wants to rule the world.

Chronos can be a fickle master: Two weeks ago in California, I set my watch one hour forward for Daylight Savings Time in the Pacific Time Zone. That and the SamTrans 292 bus helped get me to the San Francisco Airport on time for my Friday-evening flight. Remarkably, like full-uddered cows congregating at the milking barn at precisely the right hour, hundreds of other United passengers converged on cue at the departure gate. Yesterday en route from California to London, I set my watch seven hours forward to match the mother of all time zones – Greenwich Mean Time – so not to miss my flight to Edinburgh. A kind friend who had offered to drive me from the airport to Blackburn arrived at 6:30 on the dot as planned. About 15 minutes ago, I set my watch yet another hour forward because Daylight Savings Time just started in the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, the sun, moon, and stars God created move placidly in their apparent orbits around Earth oblivious to our clocks. My own body has no intention of settling down for a good night’s sleep at 5:15 pm – even though my mind knows breakfast will be served in a few hours at 7:30 am, which is really 11:30 at night, according to my stomach. Chronos is a fickle master, indeed.

Because this tyrant-at-times governs much of my present daily life, I have decided to observe the next 10 days in a kairos way by attuning to synchronicity and participating in God’s design for this time in West Lothian and Newcastle. Aside from necessary bows to Chronos (I have, after all, a few planes and trains to catch, B+Bs to check into, Masses to attend, curtain times to honor, pre-paid meals to share with the fan community), I have left most hours open and unplanned. Already I feel relaxed and poised for adventure.

Three years ago, 48-year-old Susan Boyle lived her quiet, devout, financially strained life with her cat, Pebbles, less than a mile from my little room here at the Burnview Bed and Breakfast. She was famous only in West Lothian, where the locals knew of her astonishing voice and established ways. She and the townsfolk shared intersecting daily orbits in Blackburn and the collection of villages. All was much the same as it had been since the cataclysm (for Susan) of Bridget Boyle’s death in 2007 at age 91.

Until, in the fullness of time, “I dreamed a dream….”

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
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