Once in a lifetime

I have this once in a lifetime opportunity (David Byrne filling my head as I write that) that I’m not sure what to do with.

A year off from all work responsibilities. A year to myself, after 23 years of 24/7 boarding school teacher life, equally grueling lawyer life before that, life with so many kids in and out of my home, with ailing parents needing long-term care and then dying, with marriages working, then not working, then also dying.

All that scrambling, helping, managing, caring for, running flat-out with no end in sight (with no thought of seeking an end, no understanding there could be one).

And suddenly, quiet.

I am alone in a home I (unexpectedly) own on a rocky island off the coast of Maine. I have nowhere to be and no boxes to check. I don’t have to worry about a paycheck or benefits (this is a sabbatical). I haven’t talked to a teenager in weeks (confession: I do spend a tick too long at the Hannaford’s checkout when the cashier is a kid.) My Google calendar is bare. No one needs me for anything.

So what do I do now? Without a purpose prescribed from the outside, how do I find a purpose? What do people to, who don’t have to do anything?

We’ll see.