When someone asks my favorite pastime, I usually laugh, because “pastime” implies I’ve got time to pass! Between dodging daily drama, keeping my sanity intact, and wondering if the kettle has boiled or just given up, spare time feels like a luxury item.
But when I do find a little pocket of peace, I turn to my favorite things, the ones that make me feel most like me. Writing is top of the list, mostly because it helps me make sense of the nonsense. There’s something satisfying about turning chaos into sentences, even if I’m the only one who understands them. Words have become my way of sweeping out the mental cobwebs, one paragraph at a time.
Then there’s painting, my version of meditation with a splash (literally). I can lose hours mixing colours, getting paint on everything but the canvas, and creating something that makes no sense to anyone else but me. It’s not about perfection; it’s about peace.
And don’t get me started on moving furniture. I swear I was a professional room shuffler in another life. One minute I’m sitting quietly, the next I’m hauling a sofa across the room because it looked at me funny. There’s something deeply satisfying about changing your surroundings, even if it’s just to trick your brain into thinking life’s moving forward when it feels stuck.
Of course, my favorite place of all is outside. Nature is the great reset button, no screens, no nonsense, just real life humming away. I’ll take a muddy walk over a manic crowd any day. The wind clears your head, the trees listen better than most people, and you come home feeling more like yourself again.
And then, there are the good ones, the people who are awake. You know the type, they don’t buy into the madness, they see through the smoke and mirrors, and they make you feel lighter just by being around. Those are the folks I love spending time with. The ones who remind you that laughter still exists, truth still matters, and you can have deep conversations without losing your sense of humour.
As Granny Frass used to say, “Life’s too short to sit with the sleepers, love, find the ones with their eyes open and their hearts switched on.”
So that’s me. Writing, painting, rearranging, wandering, and sharing tea with the bright ones. Because at the end of the day, the best pastime isn’t really about passing time at all, it’s about making it count.
Mae 🧡
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