An Hour Lost

Somewhere, in a book, I read a quote that has stayed with me. I stand on both sides of the quote, batting back and forth its worth and its folly. I am nearly positive I read it in “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet” by David Mitchell. I’ll need to do a little digging to be sure but for now that is the book I will go with. The quote went something like this:

“An hour wasted and lost in the morning will be chased all the rest of the day.”

Sad but true, don’t you think? And yet, is it really a sad truth or a myth, a fallacy, a cruel trick to make us feel guilty for an entire day! I’m not sure and that is why I bat it around in my head, all the time! I do, I think about this all the time. I feel proud of myself on days when I get up and get going right away, not leaving a moment idle. Not getting distracted. Not indulging…

And yet there are days when I say, “Be gone, disturbing thought! Be gone and let me tarry! (Hahaha, I guess I don’t actually think those words, but you get the idea.) Sometimes one just needs to be idle, distracted, and indulgent. And I think that is what snow days are for! They are bonus days. They can be spent catching up on anything you like, work, fun, idleness, distractions, indulgences…

And today was a snow day, and I don’t feel the need to chase an hour down. Even though I probably did dilly-dally away a bit of my morning today! And it was good!