This Week's Quotation:
“There are lesser and larger eternities, for eternity is a term of the soul & can exist in Time as well as exceeding it.”
—Sri Aurobindo
Terms of the Soul
Rev. Berry Behr, Interfaith Minister
Time in Africa lands differently. Every culture holds its own relationship with time, and here, it is experienced as deeply interconnected. Rather than a linear progression, time feels cyclical—layered, alive. The past is not gone, and the future is not distant; both are present with us now.
In African Traditional Practice, ancestors do not belong to history—they are part of the living moment. Indigenous knowledge understands memory as moral responsibility and time as something woven rather than sequential. Ancestors are active participants in daily life. When you move into a new home, you tell them where you are. You continue to visit their resting places, keep them informed of changes, and seek their guidance and blessing. To act without their inclusion is to show disrespect. They are not worshipped as gods but honored as guides forming a bridge between the Divine—Nkulunkulu, the Great I Am—and ourselves.
Time is also experienced through cycles: the rhythms of nature, the turning of seasons, the innate intelligence of the body. What may appear circular is perhaps more truly a spiral. Spring returns each year, yet it is never the same spring. It carries echoes of what has been, and it’s an entirely new moment.
In a world that often measures life in deadlines and urgency, there is a deep reassurance in these interwoven cycles—the cycle of life within the seasons, within the moon, within the greater movements of the cosmos.
Years ago, during a deeply challenging time, I found solace in a simple reframing: this is “just Earth stuff.” One day, I realized, I would leave this plane—and with that transition, the situation would dissolve into the mists of time. From a soul perspective, it would no longer hold meaning. That awareness allowed me to step back from the intensity of the moment and see a larger pattern unfolding.
In time, I came to recognize that what felt unbearable had in fact opened the way for unexpected growth. The difficulty became a threshold—a quiet initiation into something greater.
Now, when challenges arise, I ask, “How permanent is this? How deeply will it touch the journey of my soul?” And from that place, I choose how to respond.
What might you release today if you knew that, in time, it simply will not matter?
Yes. So well put. I once saw a movie about Near Death Experience survivors who, when met at the end of a light tunnel by a Great Force, were asked “What have you brought to show ME?” … not “what have you got on your resume?”; not “how much money have you made?” not “how much earthly power have you accumulated?” All of that falls away at the “end” and the question about time is “how have you spent it on matters of true cosmic purpose?” such as making a difference in people’s lives, perhaps saving lives, being a spiritual exemplar, giving, serving, communing with HIGHER SOURCE. The time spent on guilty pleasures and self-absorption doesn’t seem to matter at the end. Whether one’s favorite sports team won or lost the play-offs doesn’t seem to matter at “the end” (which may well be “the beginning”) . So why not have a transcendent attitude about life NOW rather than wait until one’s death bed?” I am with you, Dr. Behr, in letting the larger picture and the larger purpose show me how time is spent — and perhaps it is not “spent” at all … perhaps there will be just as much or more of it in the great Eternities Sri mentions after it seems to have “gone” than before … Here is how “eternity” is described in the last verse of “Amazing Grace”, — “when we’ve been there ten thousand days, bright shining as the Sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, than when we first begun.” Thank you, Berry, Aloha from Oahu, Tom
Thank you, Rev. Berry, for lifting us into the eternal moment beyond the framework and restrictions of time. Our Angelic Reality already exists in that space and in identity with that our own minds and hearts have a sense of spiraling upward into that dimensionless world.
There is no beginning – there is no end – and the best part is – that is the good news!!! We get to experience everything and learn to realize that what looks bad – may in the end be the best experience and what looks good – just enjoy it!!!