"The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds."     R. D. Laing

On this "About" page:

• What is this website about?
• Does "natural time" really matter?
• What makes the KinderClock so different -- and potentially useful?
• How and where did the idea of the KinderClock arise?
• Why conventional clocks and watches don't tell "natural time"?
• But we cannot go backwards from the way we tell time!
• Points to Remember
• Glossary
• For More Information

 

What is this website about?

It is about being born again time-wise -- by becoming wise again about "natural time"! It starts with remembering that from both a circadian rhythm point of view -- and from a common sense one, each new day does NOT begin in the middle of the night. No matter what conventional "corporate standard time" clocks and watches tell us. And it ends up by giving you a simple, yet elegant free way of seeing & experiencing "natural" time: your own personalized pc-based version of our patent-pending KinderClock -- pronounced either "Kinder" as in "kindergarten for your inner child" or "Kinder" as in "a healthier kind of way to tell your self the time" depending on what feels best for you at the time.

The architecture of the KinderClock is very simple. In fact, so simple it may at first seem confusing. But only until you take a mental step backwards to a simpler and more natural way of understanding the nature of "natural time". More specifically, we use a sun-like circle journeying across a blue "sky" around an earth-like circle to indicate the passage of your actual daytime -- not the passage of the sun (although, of course, for "day" the passage of the sun and the passage of daytime are always one-to-one). And we use a white moon-like circle journeying across a black "sky" to indicate your natural night, that complementary "time of day" when the sun is below the local horizon. Because even though the moon is often seen in the day, for thousands of years the moon has been the symbol for night.

Thus, the resulting display is a very simple, yet robust "at a glance" means of informing your mind and your body (down to your very cells) of the passage of your day and night (as localized to your actual longitude and latitude), not the passage of the sun and moon. Plus pay close attention to the fact that while the upper "dynamic Yin Yang" circles are showing you where you actually are in YOUR natural day and natural night, the more granular (the Ra for daytime and Thoth for nighttime) "Two eyes of Horus" "natural minutes indicator" below them are not only minutely showing you where you are in YOUR day and night. They are also showing you what is happening during the graceful transitioning from your day to your night during dusk twilight, and from your night to your day during dawn twilight.

Note as well that based on much recent medical research in many areas about the relationship of natural time to biological functions, our KinderClock's uniquely holistic method of informing your mind and your body of the passage of natural time may be very important. For example, to people suffering from ICU psychosis, Alzheimer's, SAD, ADHD, and indeed just about everyone forced to live and work in ways physically and/or emotionally isolated from natural timekeeping, the Kinderclock may be a "god-send". See the research of Dr. Ladislav Volicer, http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/158/5/704, for just a sample of how important natural time really is to us, and what happens when we become isolated from it due to disease, or "merely" the imposition of artificial time on our consciousnesses at the expense of the rest of the whole picture of time.

Note: If you are unfamiliar with a term used in this site, please use our glossary

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Does "natural time" really matter?

Due to the way we live and work in the post-modern world, we tend to be guided by mechanical, rather than organic models and sources of information. Yet the consequences of trying to make our biological rhythms adjust to mechanically implemented standards such as "corporate standard time" often causes our minds and bodies serious problems. Some of these problems are very obvious, like the disorientation that comes twice a year from "springing forward" and "falling back" -- and the increase in accidents during Daylight Saving Time. Other problems are less noticable, but no less pervasive, and sometimes even more problematic. Such as when a patient in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital is isolated from the passage of day and night, and begins to suffer from "ICU psychosis".

Read more about the problems of being unaware of "natural time" and the useful health benefits of being more aware of it via use of GreenTyme's KinderClock.

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What makes the KinderClock so different -- and potentially useful?

In addition to showing conventional time for your standard time zone, the KinderClock shows time as your mind and your body (all the way down to your neurons and other cells) are naturally experiencing time. I.e., after you enter your latitude and longitude information (just by entering your city, state or province, and country) to localize your own version of the KinderClock, it first determines each day's changing times of sunrise and sunset and next day's time of sunrise, and then divides each duration of day and night by twelve to derive each day and night's usually different lengths of "natural hours". (Unlike a conventional timepiece, the KinderClock takes into account the obvious, but rarely paid attention to anymore fact that each day's daytime is longer in the summer and shorter in the winter!) The result of our "kinder" method of re-localizing and re-naturalizing time is that there is nothing more useful than a customized KinderClock to wholly inform your "biological clock" and "inner child" about their natural place in time and space. Only the KinderClock gives them and you the whole picture of time -- not just a much more limited and self-limiting snapshot of "corporate standard time".

The KinderClock's benefits are very basic and wide-ranging. E.g., Dr. Mark White, M.D., discoverer of the unsuspected Symmetry of DNA says this of the "heal thy self" benefits of frequent use of the KinderClock: "Healing is an act performed by the patient not a passive activity received from a doctor. The KinderClock is an unusually effective device to help patients learn this important lesson toward achieving true health." And he also says, "This kind of cognitive therapy makes more sense to me than most of the unsupported, expensive and outright dangerous pharmacologic therapies that physicians are dogmatically trained to overuse. This should be seen as a logical first line of therapy before taking unnecessary risks with more conventional modes."

If you have not already done so, you can set up your KinderClock here.

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How and where did the idea of the KinderClock arise?

Some things are meant to be. The idea for the KinderClock came to me about a month before a heart attack and a quadruple bypass. But just as quickly as the idea of a "natural time in real-time" clock popped into my head, it slipped from my consciousness. Then about five weeks later, I was lying in a windowless Intensive Care Unit soon after having had my quadruple. In the ICU I began suffering "ICU psychosis", due in part to not having direct access to the passage of day and night. Even as I felt myelf slipping away from life instead of recovering, I kept wishing that I had my "natural time" clock with me to look at in order to be both wholly aware of and totally in sync with the passage of day and night. Note: I have since discovered that ICU psychosis is a much too typical and serious problem in Intensive Care Units:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/120898sci-icu-psychosis.html.

After surviving that terrible and terrifying I.C.U. ordeal and recovering, I made a sacred promise to bring the KinderClock into reality. And GreenTyme.org is my way of making a free PC-based version of it available to every person who would like an easy way to be "at one" with the natural passage of day and night. As the KinderClock displays how we humans have been seeing and experiencing time since the beginning of our time on earth, I think it is a great way to help patients recovering in hospitals. Plus it obviously benefits folks forced to spend most of their days in windowless cubicles and other "isolated from the flow and ebb of day and night" environments. Is it reall y a great way to inform your body and mind of where you are in "natural" time? See for yourself by experiencing it for your self, and then let me know!
YL

Read More.

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Why conventional clocks and watches don't tell "natural time"?

The short answer. Money. A longer answer is this. First consider that displaying time naturally requires using unequal durations of hours depending on latitude and date of the year (in accord with the fact that days are longer in the summer and shorter in the winter.) And then consider that for hundreds of years such "natural" clocks cost much more to make and maintain than making and maintaining "unnatural" ones, those clocks displaying "man-made hours" of equal duration (the so-called standard sixty minute "mean hour" derived by averaging the durations of every day's day and night hours over the course of a year.) All of which leads to both the best and worst of times. Once time was standardized, it was and is used to make and enforce manufacturing and administrative schedules of all sorts. So there you have it. A large part of the recipe for the industrial revolution -- and also the dehumanization of humanity. At least until it is time for things to get more "natural" again with a renewed sense of GreenTyme!

For an even longer answer, read more about the history of time measuring.

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But we cannot go backwards from the way we tell time!

Our intention is not to replace "corporate standard time" as displayed by mechanical and other conventional time devices with organic "natural" time. That would be unrealistic. However, it is GreenTyme's objective to freely make available on the Web KinderClocks customized to each user's location, which help its users live more healthfully by better informing their minds and bodies about their natural place in time and space. For the first time in a long time providing the whole picture of time!

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Points to Remember

 

• Green is the color of Ecology, the study of the interactions of organisms and their environment; and Tyme is a shortened version of Olde Tyme (referring to old-fashioned, personalized NOT-standardized time.)
• Thus, "GreenTyme" stands for "Your Personal Time for Better Interaction with Your Natural Environment". Just the way your cells and organs try to do so.
• Digitalized, corporate, standardized time is a problem to our minds and bodies, and has negative health consequences.
• Replacing standardized time is not practical.
• Complementing "corporate standard" time with "natural" time (with the help of the KinderClock) is practical and easy.
• There may be huge health benefits to doing so. Unlike drugs with dangerous side effects, it certainly can't hurt!
• KinderClocking helps relax and focus your self by having you more self-aware of the passage and usage of time.

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Glossary

circadian (cir-ca-di-an) rhythm: relating to or exhibiting approximately 24-hour periodicity. [Latin circa, around; see circa + Latin dies, day.] A roughly-24-hour cycle in the physiological processes of living beings (plants, animals, etc.)

Kinder: in the context of this topic is either "KinderClock" as in "kindergarten of Eden" or "KinderClock" as in "a kinder and gentler way of being at one with the ebbs and flows of day and night."

latitude: is north or south geographic coordinate measurement (from the earth's equator).

longitude: is the east-west geographic coordinate measurement.

psychosis: is a severe mental disorder, with or without organic damage, characterized by derangement of personality and loss of contact with reality and causing deterioration of normal social functioning.

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For More Information

For more information visit specific links in subsections above, as well as links on top, including 'More Info' page.

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