It really makes you think doesn't it? The older I am getting, the more precious my time is.
I am the worst culprit I know for, ' wasting time'. I will spend ages just standing at the side hatch staring at the sky and marvelling at how the cloud formations change by the minute. I can spend hours on my lap top chatting to people I have never met, reading their comments and being interested in their lives and what they are up to, especially if they are fellow boaters. I may have dishes in the sink, an unmade bed, countless chores that need seeing to but I like my bouts of wasted time, because to me they are not wasted! I love them! Granted some days I will get to bed time and think that was a waste of a day, I could have been doing this, this or this, but all in all I enjoy my, 'me' days, I go at my pace and just do the things I want to do!
It fascinates me when I watch people bustling about. I look at them and wonder, have they even noticed the gorgeous colours the trees are right now, can they see the hundreds of Canadian Geese flying over in perfect formation, do they notice the clouds and how lovely the sky is, or is all this wasted on them? People have so much going on in their lives, jobs, families, money struggles all of life's ammunition that gets fired at us constantly, ill health, squabbles the price of fish!
I am not for one minute making light of these personal problems, every individual deals with them differently,I am not belittling the importance of what is distracting a person but, to all those people the sky is just as beautiful, the rainbow that has just appeared after that nuisance of a downpour is every bit as gorgeous, the cute little dog that just walked past, the cheeky toddler in a pram just waiting for your eye contact so they can try out their brand new, 'Hiya' they have just mastered!
I have watched people walking along the opposite towpath, the sun set has been stunning and they don't even lift their heads to see? I want to shout, "Oi look at that sun set, your missing it"! For fear of being locked up, I don't!
I suppose if I really stop and think, not everybody sees things as I do, and as always it is down to personal choice. Some people, namely me, can lose themselves in a sun set or a rainbow when there are more pressing things I should be dealing with, things that others would find far more important, to them anyway, things they will miss that rainbow for. Maybe I have my priorities so wrong, but I feel safe in the knowledge that these wonderment's of nature are not, and will never be, wasted on me! Is it since I have had the boat or have I always been the same?
I vividly remember playing as a child in the garden and using my imagination to play my little games. The Red Hot Poker flowers growing in the garden that I would pick bits from and put them in water and pretend it was a gold fish in a pond or lake!! All that mattered to me in that instant as a child were these little fish that I had created, my imagination held no bounds! I loved to get lost in it all.....as I do now as an adult, not that I play pretend gold fish anymore, I now have real fish and water to look at!!
I also love to lose myself in my writing, stuff and nonsense as I often call it! I often like to stop the world and get off, just to be in my world and not have to share this world with anybody, just for a short time. I then have to run to catch up with the real world once again, I liken it to seeing a person running after an old fashioned bus, you know the ones with the open ended back deck, I just grab the pole in time and drag myself back to reality, just in time to immerse myself into mundane, ' Have to do's' like work and chores!!
I will never lose sight of the fact I have a charmed life. For all the moaning I do, and believe me I do, at times, a mean female version of Victor Meldrew, I know I am a truly lucky person. Lucky in the fact I haven't had some of the horrendous traumas people have had to endure, traumas that maybe sadly diminish their ability to find wonderment in the simple things. I have lost people, as we all have, close family like my Dad, my Nan Grandad Grandma and friends and my little Dog, who have been taken far too early, all of which leave a deep sadness that you have to learn to live with, otherwise the gift you have of life that was whipped away from those you have lost, is wasted on you....
Now I ask myself, what brought all this on? In all honesty I have no clue, I just wanted to write what was in my head, so I did, because I can!
I love my days off, I love my selfish, 'Debbie Days'. I love writing things down. I wonder if in years to come people will come across this blog, read it and think, what a nutter. I do hope so!! It will have all been worthwhile!
Changing the subject somewhat, my fire door has been re glazed and re roped, so Dan will pick that up for me Tuesday, I can then have my stove lit when on the boat. I just need to reseal the fire, put my new chimney in place then jobs a gooden! My central heating has come in handy while my fire has been out of commission, but you can't beat the wood burner, to be honest it hasn't really been needed up to now the weather has been so mild. I still look forward to lighting my first fire for Winter, even after ten years of doing it!
Right I really must go get that 'real world' bus there is one due any minute! Needs must, I really do have chores to do, besides there are no Rainbows to look at right now! Then again the sun has just come out, the view from the side hatch is stunning......late for the bus again!
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