My son has a Zen calligraphy over his bed that says, "Doing Nothing Is Something." He’s a middle schooler who sleeps a lot, fantasizes about baseball, and chats for hours about “nothing” with friends.

If there’s anything I’ve figured out over the last few years, it’s that life doesn’t always go as planned. I had a vision of how my life should unfold — how the world told me it should go. And so, ...