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About This Author
My name is Joy, and I love to write.
Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground.
 
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Daily Cascade #1110954 added March 18, 2026 at 1:28pm
Restrictions: None
Time well-spent???
Prompt: Time well spent.
Write about what time well spent means to you.
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Such a noble phrase, this "time well-spent"! It points to being productive; however, it is a bit judgmental, too. As if it is asking me what I've done with my life while sipping herbal tea.
Well, in the past, I did do some things with languages, teaching, and lit, and such, but do they count? No! Instead, this phrase is probably pointing to the fact that I didn't reorganize my study room into a system so efficient that it practically can file my taxes by itself. No, I can't leave my taxes in the hands of a study room or a garage or any room of my barely well-kept dwelling. Instead, my accountant comes to the rescue. Now, getting such help points to the true meaning of "time-well-spent."
Yet, to me, in reality, "time well-spent" often looks suspiciously like doing absolutely nothing… just with confidence.
Then, time well-spent could also mean me spending several hours watching cooking videos without even entering my kitchen. Could watching cooking videos be productive? No, but I would know how to flambé a banana while maintaining eye contact with a camera. That’s not nothing. That’s called potential.
Also, I could take a nap, which I never have during the day, but I could call a nap, "a strategic energy realignment session," since it would invest in my future alertness. Instead, I read something or do a word puzzle or too. This is the real "time well-spent" for me, nap or not.
Then. there’s that deep, philosophical scrolling session on my cell. I start by checking one message and somehow end up laughing at a bunny on the lawn of the White House while our President is having a tantrum.
Maybe my time is not justified; that is, measured, optimized, and squeezed like an orange until every drop of productivity comes out. But should I constantly check the clock to see if I should be enjoying it more efficiently?
In the end, I think time-well-spent isn't how much I've accomplished. It's about me forgetting to worry about the fact that time is passing at all.
And if I can do that, preferably while watching that bunny hop on the lawn of the White House, I will be doing just fine.
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