The Golden Dust of Time

With the new year arrived, and many people's minds turned toward the topic of time, J.R. Miller wrote some applicable words on the subject-

If we knew the intrinsic value of time to us, we would not let a moment of it ever to be wasted. It is said that in the mints, where money is coined, the sweepings of the floors are gathered and passed through the fire, and that in the course of a year large amounts of gold are saved from the mere dust of precious metal which flies from it as it passes through the various processes of minting. What vast values would be saved if there were some way of gathering up all the little fragments of the days and hours, the golden dust of time, which people let drop amid the wastes!

Then think how much most of us would really add to the length of our life if we had learned to use every hour and moment. We talk pathetically of the brevity of life. We are often heard complaining of the shortness of the days, wishing that they had many more hours in them. Probably the majority of persons who live seventy-five years could have doubled their span - living practically 150 years - if they had only used their time with wise economy, and had not squandered any of it. This is only saying that they have wasted one-half their time, and have made only one-half as much of their life as they might have done.

Later on, he writes:

There are many ways of wasting time. Many really busy people waste a great deal of time in little fragments - five minutes here, ten minutes there, half an hour today, and an hour tomorrow. Those who understand the true value of time, and have learned the secret of using it, always have something worthwhile to fill up all the little interstices. They have a book to read when they find a few minutes to spare before a meal is ready, or when waiting for one on whom they have called to appear, in the railway station waiting for the train, or on any occasion of delay. Time is well spent in which we get a beautiful thought, an important fact or a suggestion of a lesson into our mind.

(Young People's Problems, pp. 132-133)