One of my favorite T-shirts says: Hike. Snack. Read. This is my version of ‘Eat Pray Love’!
So this is a time for exploration for me, both external adventures. Going new places, spending time with family and friends, making new friends as well as internal exploration to figure out what what makes me tick and what what’s important to me now. What can I do without and what do I absolutely must have? How can I create a life that feels valuable to me? I don’t know what I’m going to find, and at times it seems like I am being naïve and silly and ridiculous – a privileged dilettante. But I know it’s what I’ve got to do right now,
I’ve had brief spates of unemployment, mainly when my kids were young. Even when I moved countries going to New Zealand and back to the US I only had a week or two when I wasn’t working. I think the longest time I wasn’t working before I had kids was the first quarter of college when I gave myself time off to get adjusted. Not having a paid job will be a new experience for me.