The Fullness of Time

A joyful exploration of nature’s daily rhythms and a call to notice the wonders of the natural world, wherever you are. Most of us live fully digitized lives, staring at screens and tracking our data. We think of time as the relentless march of abstract, identical hours that control the shape of our days. But what might we gain from exploring the forgotten art of sensing the natural patterns of the world around us? Cathy Haynes argues that by paying more attention to the living rhythms of plants, animals, and light, we stand to reap inner riches that can bring us fascination, delight, and comfort in a time of tumult. To discover a new sense of time, she draws on the knowledge of astronomers, botanists, ornithologists and experts on sundial-making, shepherding, and traditional work songs. In an earlier world, we used to mark daily cycles by shadows shrinking or the midday glow over a mountaintop. We called a phase of darkness “cockcrow” and named lively flowers for when they open and close. When working, we may have synchronized a task by singing. We’d notice the quality of the light changing at dusk and mark the passing of night by the motion of the stars. The Fullness of Time is an invitation to tune into the subtle changes happening around us throughout the day, even in the concrete-and-glass heart of the twenty-first-century city. Charming, gentle and wise, it offers a chance to realign ourselves with the rhythms of the natural world and a reminder to pay attention to the wonders before us if only we look around.