Wasting Time

Posted by Terry McNichols

I must admit that there are whole days (or more) that pass when I wonder what I have actually accomplished.  My computer pulls me in and time passes without any noticeable achievements.  I affirm the Biblical version of the virtuous woman from Proverbs 31 ("She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness") and I can say that I really am not very often "idle."  It is rare that I would just sit and do nothing!  But still, being "retired" from any billable-hours type of work, it is sometimes hard to give meaning to the minutia of my life.  Here is something sent to me by a friend that helps me quantify the "work" that I now do. 

Because time is continuous and homogeneous, every action or emotion has meaning and value of its own, irrespective of cause, purpose or result.  Love, admiration and reverence have positive meaning, even when it turns out that their object does not deserve them.  Care, patience and courage have positive meaning, even when the project fails .... boredom is not only a judgment about experience but a sin against ourselves.  Thus we must live the present not only in context but out of context, see it not only as a link in a chain but as a kind of poetic essence, impermanent and absolute.
-- Robert Grudin, Time and the Art of Living.

I am actually very busy practicing the "art of living!"  
(Photo by bogenfreund, shared via Flickr)