Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Marthe Troly-Curtin

Greetings everyone! I’m excited to be back for my series Life: From A to Z and I’m moving right along… to the lovely letter “L.”

The “L” word that caught my attention was LEISURE, and I’m so glad that it did. Some of the definitions that I found were…

• Free time
• Use of free time for enjoyment
• Opportunity afforded by free time to do something
• Time free from work or duties

It was funny to read that last one. When I worked full-time, Monday through Friday (and not remotely), my “time free from work” was actually reserved for “duties.” Mainly grocery shopping, cooking, and laundry. I actually enjoyed doing those chores on my days off, but not because they were fun, relaxing, or entertaining. I enjoyed them because they were “productive.” I felt such a sense of accomplishment when I was finished!

The refrigerator was stocked, a few meals were planned, and there were piles of clean clothes, neatly folded and smelling pretty. In thinking about the word leisure, I realize now that maybe I wasn’t making the most of my “free time” in those days.

What’s funny is that I haven’t done many photo or art projects for a while, and the other day I spent hours on the computer trying to get back into it. By the time I was finished, the sun was going down and I thought to myself, “Man, what a waste of a day!”

But it wasn’t. It was leisure. And I’m probably not alone in thinking that sometimes we feel a bit more “rewarded” when we’ve been productive, and we feel a little more “guilty” when we’ve used our free time to take part in leisure activities instead. That is so wrong!

Anyway, I stumbled on the quote (above) and it was like an AHA moment for me. It sounds a bit like an oxymoron, but it’s so very true. My time was not wasted the other day, because it was time I enjoyed wasting.

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About the Image

I met up with some friends over the weekend for a little hike and some photography. It was so cool to be out with like-minded people and it really inspired me to get back into using my camera. The featured image is a shot I took while we were out, and it seemed like the perfect capture for the word leisure.

That’s about all for now. Thank you for reading! I hope you found something entertaining or useful here. I’ll be back soon for the letter “M.”