W I L D · C L O C K S

~ time is in Chala Kala’s name; meaning ‘moving times’ or ‘times movement’. Here is some inspiration on our times gathered from the essay Wild Clocks by David Farrier in Emergence Magazine Vol. 5 💛

“As wild clocks fall out of measure, can we recalibrate our sense of time and foster a rhythm by which all life can flourish? […]

Biological clocks that evolved an exact synchronization over millions of years are falling out of sync: the beat does not fall where it should; syncopation becomes dissonance. […]

There are three components in any organism’s biological clock, she [Barbara Helm–chronobiologist] explained, which make up its “chronotype”, an expression of time totally distinct to that creature. First, a sense of time that is embedded in an organism’s tissues; second, this “body time” is coordinated with what chronobiologists call zeitgebers or “time-givers”—environmental factors such as daylight or temperature that modulate an animal’s or plant’s body time to a specific tempo. Their role is to synchronize the animal or plant with the world around them. […]

An animal might have different clocks in different organs, Barbara explained, one in the skin to coordinate temperature, another in the liver to regulate feeding cues. The same is true for insects: butterflies navigate by the sun, but they also employ “antennae clocks” to compensate for changes in latitude as they migrate. Each cell carries its own timekeeper, precisely tuned to a particular function. […]

Time is made in the body, but it is also made together. The third element in a chronotype is the interaction between organisms. […]

Samantha Chisholm Hatfield [member of Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians & cultural anthropologist], writes of how Indigenous concepts of time can vary widely but are always deeply entwined with a sense of how time is made together with the places in which people live.

[…] we must let wild clocks adjust our sense of connection, particularly where their rhythms are becoming disordered. […]

In coordinating with wild clocks and composing new rituals, we might also redesign the systems and infrastructures that sustain modern life.”

>> link to the full essay: Emergence Magazine