My mind needed a place to rest

 Sometimes the best way to move forward is to step away.

This weekend, I found myself in a familiar place — a long to-do list, a full calendar, and that quiet, creeping feeling of task paralysis that can sneak in when there is simply too much to hold at once. In the middle of senior sponsor season at school — organizing details for Senior Blazer Day, coordinating ceremonies, communications, and traditions that matter deeply to our graduating class — my mind needed a place to rest.

So I did what librarians (and readers) know to do.

I escaped into a book.

I picked up Isola by Allegra Goodman for what I told myself would be “a little escape reading.” What I didn’t expect was to be transported not just into a story, but into history, geography, and reflection.

Isola follows the haunting and resilient story inspired by Marguerite de la Rocque, a young French noblewoman marooned on an island off the coast of 1500s Canada. Alone, abandoned, and forced into survival, her story is one of isolation, endurance, and the strange clarity that can come when the noise of the world falls away.

And somehow, in the middle of coordinating blazers, schedules, and senior traditions, Marguerite’s isolation felt oddly relevant.

Not because my world is remote or quiet — quite the opposite — but because her story reminded me of the power of stillness. Of stripping life down to its essentials. Of what remains when distractions fall away. And survival is the main goal.

Reading Isola sent me down a delightful rabbit hole into the real history of Marguerite de la Rocque and early French exploration in Canada. It reminded me why historical fiction is such a gift: it opens doors to learning we didn’t know we were looking for.

But more than that, it gave me peace.

It gave me permission to pause.

As school librarians, educators, and caretakers of community spaces, we spend so much time creating places of inspiration, learning, and comfort for others. This weekend, Isola became that place for me.

An isolated survival story in the middle of a busy season.

Here’s to the books that rescue us when we didn’t realize we needed rescuing — and to finding a little calm in the pages when the to-do list feels overwhelming.