The Lost Art of Puttering

You know what you don't hear of a lot of people doing anymore?

Puttering.

You hear of rushing and running and going and doing. But you don't hear a lot of puttering. As in:

"What are you up to today?"
"Oh just puttering around the house."
or
"Thought I'd putter in the garden this morning."

I think we need more puttering.

putter [puht-er] verb (used without object) 1. to busy or occupy oneself in a leisurely, casual, or ineffective manner: to putter in the garden. 2. to move or go in a specified manner with ineffective action or little energy or purpose: to putter about the house on a rainy day.

We're always doing something these days. Always being productive. Or we're checked out in front of some electronic devise. But I bet if you had asked my grandma on just about any given day, at some point during that day she would have described herself as puttering.

That's not to say that my grandma wasn't busy or productive. She was. But it seemed, somehow, different. A part of life, but not all of life.

Puttering, for adults, is the equivalent of being bored, for kids. And research is telling us that kids today don't have enough of that...that downtime, that time to do nothing and be nowhere. And I'd venture to guess that we adults need more of that too. Time to do nothing and be nowhere.

Time to putter.

So, I'm bringing it back. Puttering, that is. In honor of my grandma. And my wellbeing.

Until next time, go occupy yourself in a leisurely and ineffective manner. It's good for you.

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