Wasting Time

In Antoine De Saint-Exupery’s book The Little Prince, as they are saying good-bye, there is this wonderful exchange between the fox and the little prince.
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.
What is essential is invisible to the eye.
It is the time you waste for your rose that makes your rose important.”

We do many things with our time.
Use it.
Spend it.
Maximize it.
Stretch it.
Fill it.
But, we are taught never to waste it.
And, there we are wrong, because I think the fox is right.
We are to waste our time on those whom we love (including ourselves!).
Paying attention to them.
Enjoying being with them.
Laughing with them.
Crying with them.
Being silent with them.
Supporting them.
Loving them.
For it is in wasting time on them;
Sharing with them the most precious commodity we have;
That love and life deepens and grows.