by Dolores Moore

Created on: August 05, 2008

Pass the time! What a sad, wasteful, waiting image those words conjure up. Why not "use your time," for we know that time, for many of us, is a precious commodity. I do not want it to pass, I would like it to stand still, or even turn back, but in truth, I want to make the most of it. Which is not to sit in front of a square box or flat screen with talking heads or silly pictures assaulting my senses. Life is too short. Here are some of my own favourite ways to make best use of my time.

READING: Nothing in this world gives me more pleasure than to immerse myself in a good book. It could be an Amy Tan novel, a play by Tennessee Williams, or the Norton Anthology of Verse. I know I will gain so much insight, pleasure and learning from just opening a book. I will be refreshed, having absented myself from everyday life and flown to other places.

WRITING: Ah, well, this is a compulsion, an outlet, a means of communicating ideas, thoughts, feelings. It might be through a long letter to a friend, writing a poem for a child, a post on Helium, but it is a pleasure and a deep longing. Who needs television when so many great dramas are playing in the mind, just waiting to be transferred and transmitted?

TALKING: Yes, turn off the television and talk to the people around you. Exchange opinions, share your day, discuss what is important to you. Make a point of going out and leaving that TV off, meet friends and talk over a cup of coffee. If you cannot get out, pick up the phone and talk. Listen too, just connect, person to person. Put that electronic interloper in its place - in a corner, to be used only as a last resort.

GARDENING: Now you do not need to don huge rubber boots and protective gauntlets, or go armed with every tool under the sun. I am talking planting seeds, watering, cutting back, harvesting, smelling the flowers, all the easy, relaxing pursuits that nature and a garden can offer. Oh, and I often combine talking with this one, encouraging and praising plants and shrubs for doing so well. I have a small garden and tons of plant pots with all manner of hopes planted therein. Even if you have no garden, you can cultivate growing things in pots and window boxes. One of my 'triumphs' was growing a lemon tree from a pip. The scent of the leaves is beautiful, it takes up little space after two years, and it gives me so much satisfaction.

PAINTING AND DRAWING: Now, don't just sit there and say "But I can't draw, I have always been useless at art." Most of us non-artists

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