How did you waste your day?

 

We got 24 hours a day to do what we need to do. Some of us have set schedules. Some have events that happen that must be attended to. Some of us lucky ones have all day to decide how to waste the time.

Some have hobbies, like cooking or woodworking or car repair, to pass free time. Some binge watch movies or settle into a good book. Some play sports or watch their kids play sports. Some can sit in the sand for hours and watch the waves roll in (that is called a vacation).

Some use their time wisely, while many more scroll their screens looking for something they cannot find. What happens if all the electronic connections to the outside world stopped?

Some can be creative and do things that don’t require a computer or phone connection. All the things that have become second hand (e-mail, texting, Google, online banking or purchasing and no news (fake or otherwise) are now absent. There are still somethings that can be done with paper and pencil, acoustic instruments, walking in the woods, singing. Write a poem, play a song, dance like everyone is watching, play.

For the two weeks I was off-line, I went back to some projects to work on. I drew some pictures, played some music, went back to my memoir without distraction. I also went back through years of blog writing and corrected grammar errors.

Today the rain has stopped and the Internet is reconnected. I’ve already wasted more time than due to delete junk mail and scams, but I don’t want to get back to the end of the day and say, “How did you waste your day?”