A Wasted Day. Not.

Posted on by Live & Learn

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I downloaded a sample from Amazon during my week off. Patricia Hampl’s The Art of a Wasted Day.

I skimmed a chapter and then another.

I couldn’t build a head of steam. And with one finger poke, it was gone…leaving a blank space on my Kindle app.

Not a chance I’ll be guilted into turning pages that don’t have wind at their backs. Midlife isn’t the Muscle Car. It’s Ruth Baumann’s Diagnosis: “Days like clocks tick. As do I. Quietly.”

And, yet, there She was. A slow, low murmuring. Her voice calling me back.

I’m back to Amazon, one-click, $12.99 in the till, and it’s done. Back to the Kindle.

It’s more like a basket of shards, her word, not mine.

Verbose (for one who likes to get there as the crow flies). Wandering. Catenated religious references. Historical events. Biblical passages. Notable geographical sites. Bah…Who cares?

Eyes glazing over, skipping words, jumping sentences, leaping paragraphs.

And then a few words catch the eye. And then a flock. Of Finches. Of Barn Swallows. Of Juncos. All landing softly. They too murmuring…slow down Friend. Be still. There’s something for you here.

And there is. And there was. And she wouldn’t let me go.

Would you recommend it?

No.

Did you love it?

Absolutely.

Notes:

  • Inspired by: “Sometimes you read a book so special that you want to carry it around with you for months after you’ve finished just to stay near it.” — Markus Zusak, The Book Thief 
  • Photo: Getty

26 thoughts on “A Wasted Day. Not.”

    1. The job of being human is not figuring things out, but getting lost in thought. Isn’t that what holding a vestige to the light is? Holding a vignette in mind? Shards, bits. Considering them, lost in thought… Isn’t thought supposed to find something, find an answer? But lost in thought is where we often were, where we wanted to be, you and I across the yellow kitchen table, another cup of coffee.

      ~ Patricia Hampl, The Art of the Wasted Day (Penguin Publishing Group. April 17, 2018)

      1. You are so kind! I’ve been sidelined by a recurrence of an illness – finally getting better and a bit stronger. I am hoping to get back to it soon. Thank you for the encouragement to do so!

  3. Twice a year, my mother-in-law would go through all her clothes, give me few bags to give away. And there was always a bag I had to sit down and work with. Trim the lace. Take out the buttons, save the zippers, the linings too.
    There’s always a strip of lace to trim for keeps.

  5. I love a book that, like one’s old neighborhood friends, comes up behind you while you’re standing somewhere talking or *thinking* and jabs his or her knees into the backs of your knees. It’s pretty weird, but it’s clear that they wanted to both touch you AND make you smile.

  8. Sometimes you read a book so special that you want to carry it around with you for months after you’ve finished, just to stay near it.
    Markus Zusak-The book thief

    One of the quotes engraved in my mind – in fact not only that but one of the stories of my life (I have too many of those precious books to let go – and I know I MUST ….)

  9. I’ve had writers grab me until the end of their stories. But in the end, I feel cheated out of the time spent reading their work! sigh.

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