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  Diddle – /did-duhl/ verb – (from the Latin ‘didi’ meaning small)   1.  To seemingly squander time on insignificant, albeit trivial and unimportant, matters of interest under the guise of actually accomplishing something, though unseen, of some importance.  2.  To indulge in seemingly unproductive use of time while actually, through the use of this relaxing down time, accomplishing important, even great, tasks mentally.*

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        Yesterday was another Diddle Day for me.  Seems I’ve had a lot of those this summer break.  That’s a good thing.  While diddling around sorting paperwork, arranging shelves, visiting blogs and websites of interest, my normally racing mind is able to just have a little down time and relax a little.  Sometimes relaxing is what is needed.

        Years ago, as an art director, I was responsible for coming up with brilliant ideas and captivating graphics for my clients.  I suppose you’d call it a block, but often I would find myself without anything remotely brilliant and nothing even close to captivating.  Always the answer was to get away – escape from the office and routine, jump in my car, open the sun roof, zoom out of the city and to the relaxing landscape of the countryside. 

        I suppose that’s an exotic example of ‘diddling,’ but it was diddling just the same….

escaping the grind…just relaxing a bit.

        My husband and I had been married eight years.  Our heart’s desire, for several years, had been to start our family, yet it just didn’t seem that it was ever going to happen.  With all of the advice and remedies shared with us on this topic, the one I heard most often was, “Just relax, it will happen eventually.”  And that’s exactly what happened.

        Again, when it was time to give birth to those babies we were blessed with, the main advice was, “…just relax…”  Although relaxing during the most excruciating ‘uncomfortableness’ you’ll ever experience is a tall order… again, it actually was the answer.

        If relaxing is such a vital activity, and if diddling is, in fact, synonymous with relaxing - then I say go ahead – diddle on, my brothers and sistas’…

        …have a Diddle Day!   

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*definition taken from:  LakeLady’s Dictionary of Common and Not-so-Common Terms   (A not yet published complilation of definitions fabricated on the spur-of-the-moment by yours truly.)