I Believe in Frittering

Best I can tell, frittering--the simple art of wasting time--is in peril. Do you know anyone who fritters time away?  Perhaps there are "closet fritterers" like me, who enjoy simply walking around the block or meandering the aisles at Trader Joes, but so many people  appear to be doing two or more things at once. They are driving while talking on the phone, texting while eating in a restaurant, sending emails in between preparing a recipe and putting it in the oven.  They are so busy saving time, I fear, that they are allowing it to slip away. Which brings me back to frittering.

I believe in frittering because I believe that all us need time to re-charge our batteries.  Yoga is great. So are walking and kayaking.  People swear by meditation and mindfulness and Reiki and Pilates. There are oodles of ways to relax,to  let out stress,  but there is a purposefulness to each of them.  The beauty of frittering, the power, the magic is that it is NOT purposeful. Frittering is frittering. It has no goal. It achieves nothing. And in achieving nothing, it clears our minds, rest our hearts, heals our frayed edges and reminds us that time will slip away if we try too hard to use it well.