Loitering with intent

I’ll keep this short. When I was a teenager, I met a priest who liked to say that he was practicing loitering with intent. It was a humorous way of saying that he didn’t have a vision, a passion, or an agenda. Things were developing. They’d take time. And he could wait. I thought it was clever because it also sounds like the verge of something nefarious, as in, loitering with intent to procure fill-in-the-blank. Doing little. Seeing what happens. Listening to a still small voice. Not stoking some big vision, consuming passion, or broad mission. It sounds…, well, see what you think. Does indulgent, selfish, or boring come to mind. Loitering with intent is best description yet for “retirement.” It isn’t meaningful nor meaningless. So much activity, especially discretionary activity, is a way of spending time. What if intention is the more important ingredient in how I use my time now? I’m loitering with intention to find out.