Creating Beauty Through Positive Words

In life we are given precious gifts. Mine happens to be writing. There are days when the words sing to me and I have to listen.  And then there are days when the world spins a little on its axis, leaving me empty. Regardless, I look for the lessons learned and continue on with my life.

My thoughts are just thoughts and perhaps by sharing them with you, you will find something useful and if after reading my thoughts, you don't, no worries, I totally understand. I am, however, grateful that you stopped by.

In life we sometimes comment on not having enough time. We comment on how busy we are and think we don’t have time for ourselves, let alone anyone else. 

At a recent Toastmaster meeting someone was asked what they do in their spare time. They commented that the didn’t feel they had any ‘real’ spare time and yet, the more they thought about it, they realized that some of their daily activities, were activities they enjoyed and were done in their spare time, time up until that moment, they didn’t think they had. 

It got me thinking about how I use my spare time. I often think that I should be working during my spare time and not taking time to do what I enjoy. As an individual who isn’t working at a nine to five job anymore, I have more moments of feeling guilty when I am not writing or doing my art. For instance, I watch television and think, ‘I really should be downstairs completing a writing or art project’. I think about it, and yet stay sitting. Occasionally I will bring something upstairs to complete as long as it doesn’t mean half my studio comes with it. I sometimes like having noise around me when I work as a means of having company and the television works. I do have a television in the basement but I only have videos to watch and they are limited, at this point, in number. 

But what about spare time? Have you ever taken the time to consider what you do in your day that you could actually consider spare time? Time where you are doing something that isn’t related to your job or being available to someone else? Before going to work, do you enjoy a cup of coffee with the morning paper or go to the gym. At lunch, do you go for a walk, window shop or read a good book? How about after work? Do you take time to relax in a hot bath, work on a hobby, or visit with a good friend or friends? How would you respond if someone asked you what you do in your spare time? Would your automatically respond and say, I don’t have any? 

As I think about spare time, I wonder about the things I work on, the writing and art. Perhaps these are moments of spare time for me because I love when I get totally creative. When words flow like water or the painting comes to life as the colours meld together. Perhaps my spare time ends when I have to cleanup, because although necessary, isn’t a lot of fun but it is a task I need to complete. Some people love to clean, is their spare time spent cleaning? 

This topic truly gave me something to think about and I believe it got others thinking as well or perhaps it didn’t and they couldn’t see anything going on in their daily lives that would be considered spare time. It all comes down to perception and I know that is different for everyone.

So here is my challenge for you.  Next time you tell someone you don’t have any spare time, is that a true statement or do you really have spare time but have forgotten the true meaning behind the words? If you have, I recommend you take a moment and think about your day and see if there isn’t at least one thing you do for yourself in your spare time. Let me start the ball rolling, I go outside and walk around our property. It is a beautiful way to get exercise and come up with new things to write about.