In the extraordinary piece of art that is The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy, there's a page, a picture, a quote, which says “wasting time with friends is never wasting time”.
In the last week of Sab 5.0, I met with one of my friends who I don't get to see very often.
We both work in the same industry, although coming from different angles and a long time ago, this friend of mine had a significant and huge influence on my career, in fact, one of the greatest influences on my career.
They suggested that we could meet up while I was off work and so, we met up at 9 o'clock on a Monday morning and drove out to Gunthorpe in Nottingham and walked down the River Trent with our wellies on just talking about stuff with no agenda, no purpose, no goal, just wasting time with a friend.
There is deep joy in this, being in company and in a situation where you never have to prove anything, periodically peeing in a bush because I'm too old to make it to the toilet or any other number of things that have crept into my age and wisdom stage of life.
I never came out of it thinking that I had tasks to do or things to find or things to achieve, it was just wonderful, non-pressurised time spent chewing the fat and shooting the breeze.
I think I've lost some of this, everything in my life is scheduled or targeted or goal driven and although I love that and it's always been the way and I'll be back to it again soon, it's really important not to let the tide come in too far and not to let these moments with friends or people that you care about pass you by.
Soon they’ll be gone because I'll be gone or they'll be gone and so, at the moment, finding things that feed you rather than eat you are as important as any other thing you might do to look after yourself.
Blog Post Number - 3342