Reflections on aimless activity

I'm feeding squirrels again today. After a week of cold and rain we have a respite of Indian Summer and the squirrels and jays are out in force. They are endlessly interesting to me - and to the cats who sit inside the window and cackle at them - the critters on the deck.

Mostly I've been sitting around waiting for news - two family members were having surgeries today - and, thankfully, the news is good on both fronts. But I've spent some time today doing nothing.

So I'm wondering: How much of our lives do we spend in aimless activity? Puttering around the house. Flipping through channels. Paging through magazines. Sorting through stuff. Obviously it depends on the person and the personality, but for me... it seems like a lot of time. I must enjoy it. There is too much going on inside my head to not allow for some 'reflection' time but I probably use a lot more time for that than I should.

Once in a while you see some 'data' (and I use the term loosely) about how many years of our lives we spend tying our shoes or waiting in traffic or sleeping. I wonder how many of my years I've spent aimlessly?

Plunking on the piano... rummaging through the cupboards for something to make for dinner or snack on, playing string with the cats, surfing the internet, cataloging my Terry Pratchett books... looking for lost things, figuring out where to store the last book that I finished reading and want to keep... rearranging knick knacks, looking through photo albums... starting new projects that I won't finish, peering out the window to look for signs of fall, winter, or spring as the case may be...

I had a teacher in high school who spent an entire class period trying to figure out which way a question mark curved. A friend I worked with, long before the internet, spent the better part of her work week at one point researching where best to send a complaint about Donald Duck orange juice (Dear Mr. Duck...)

... scratching cat ears, trying to get to sleep (or trying to wake up, for that matter...) Writing letters of complaint that I won't mail, making lists of things I probably won't do or Christmas presents I probably won't remember about when I need them or groceries I won't buy because I forgot to bring the list along. Planning projects I won't know how to complete...

Worrying...