Spending Time vs Killing Time

One of the things I love most in this life is spending time with my daughters.

One of the things I love most about technology is that it can give us some 'together time' even when we're far apart. I thoroughly adore talking to them, getting pictures and videos, going 'shopping' with them, messaging on social media, even texting - these are communication tools no prior generations had and they are truly blessings for many of us who live too far from those we love.

The access to research on line, the ability to submit a file instead of snail-mailing a manuscript, the absolute convenience of being able to go in and change a word or add a paragraph without having to re-type an entire page or chapter - you bet it's handy! Being able to use computers for publishing purposes enables a lot of us to share in ways that would have been impossible not so very long ago.

Spending time with people I love, spending time doing my homework and doing my job ... these are what time is meant to be spent on.

Spending time is an investment that pays off always emotionally when it comes to my daughters, and many times financially as the investment pays off in royalties.

So I'm not knocking technology here, believe me!

On the other side of the coin, however, is another side to the story.

Right now, for example, I could (and should) be doing any number of things besides sitting at my keyboard.

All too often I find myself killing time - I don't play the games that many do on line, but hours can go by without my notice when I'm just browsing around the web. Unless it's daughter-time or research that will directly contribute to the content of my books, or using the web to reach out to others with what I want to share, those hours are but killing time. Those hours are dead, and once dead, time cannot be called back.

There's a big difference between spending time, investing it so to speak, and killing it.

Mea culpa. I have murdered many of my days, and forfeited more I could have spent on worthy investments, by killing time.

That's what's on my mind this day.