Piddling

pid·dle

   [pid-l] 

verb (used without object)

1. to spend time in a wasteful, trifling, or ineffective way; dawdle (often followed by around ): He wasted the day piddling around.

 

 

I spend time doing what I call "piddling" quite often. This weekend I got two days of piddling in. But I've never considered a day of piddling wasteful. For me, it's a day of putting piles of mail or receipts or catalogs where they belong. It's doing laundry in a more purposed way, not like on a school day when I put in a load early in the morning, banish it to the dryer after I walk in the evenings, then forget to fold it until (maybe, if I'm lucky enough to remember it) the next morning. It's a time of removing the things on my list, possibly a list I carry on my shoulders only, or in my worn-out little mind even.

After a day of piddling, I usually feel very accomplished. Maybe I cooked something (with purpose, not reckless abandon), or filed some papers, or dusted a thing or two. Sometimes I SIT down and watch a moment or two of a television show while I piddle...usually some kind of quiet chore being done at the same time.

 

My favorite kind of piddling is when I move one thing from one place to another and my whole thinking changes because of it. Let's see if I can explain that better...like hanging Grandmother's heart mobile in my classroom. Just a piddling moment, that's all it took, and my perspective changed.

I hate to even mention it, but there's a #2 in the dictionary. A second meaning...oh my. It is...well, pee pee, usually associated with children and puppies. That I don't do. Nope.

So happy piddling to my friends out there who completely understand my kinda piddling.