Leap Seconds: Playing Around with Time, and with Gaia

Every time the adjustment to human time is made, it has consequences, however infinitesimal, for the world we have created: computers, clocks and precisely tuned equipment have to be modified, and it means too that our time is not neatly defined as we would like it to be. Some scientists believe it needs to be more rigidly and permanently controlled in order to make life easier for us, and proposals have been put forward to eliminate the tradition of adding leap seconds so that, instead of following the solar and lunar cycles of time, we would have our own more convenient way of keeping time. A second here or there does not sound much, but seconds accrue and without the leap seconds our connection with the Sun would falter. An astronomer, Roberto Abraham, has said:” So [without adding leap seconds] after 500 years, you would find the clock says its noon but the sun is 2 hours away from its maximum height”. Do we want this? The argument about leap seconds and precise time-keeping is more than about abandoning the age-old use of the sun and moon, and the stars too, to guide us in the way we live. It is forgotten by many that we live and breathe in accordance with the heartbeat of the planet: when we do so, our lives are serene and we are at one with Spirit, but when we forget, there is discord. Gaia has a pulse that can be felt, but only if we honour her lunar and solar rhythms as our ancestors have done for millions of years; moving away from timekeeping based on our planet and the sun will separate us even further from that which gives us life, and from God, affecting the plants and animals that we nurture, too. As it is, we control time and allow human time to control us in a way that is deeply unhelpful, and to perpetuate our growing disconnection from what is most important would be such a pity. The proposal to abandon leap seconds is another sign of our lack of awareness of what time stands for, and how, already, we abuse it. It does not have to be this way, and, indeed, you and I can honour solar time and Gaia through following the calling of our natural body clock as and when we can, and responding to the call of sun, moon and stars, the celestial beings which have guided humanity since time began. How sad it would be to forget them.   [byline]  ]]>