More About Fit than Purpose

It occurs to me this morning that maybe what I'm needing is not so much a purpose but  a good fit. Where can I comfortably fit within this place I've settled?  I don't need something as large as a purpose. I don't have the drive for it. But I would like a good fit. I would like to find a way to provide a service to the community that is in harmony with what the people here want or need and that is also in harmony with who I am as a person (talents, experiences, and limitations). I would like that service or services to result in an income stream that will allow me to prosper (to continue to alter my home/property; provide for myself, my animals, my fiance; travel a couple of times a year; afford medical care; save aggressively for retirement).  Exactly what that thing or things will be isn't that important.

I have fantastic ideas for my learning center--but I think too big and don't have the money to accomplish what I'd like and the average person here isn't likely to jump on my vision. So be it. I will be a sometime tutor as one way to make money and will seek other niches. My new scanner provides the option of scanning photographs or slides for others--and my desktop publishing skills allow for the possibility of creating a document out of photographs and family stories. My fiance and I have both wished there was a used bookstore hereabouts--I could start one.  We both also have an interest in landscaping rock in less than huge quantities they're usually sold in, so I could turn a portion of my yard into a "by-the-eaches" rock yard.

I would rather not be so scattered but I don't believe any one of these things will provide an adequate income, at least not initially. And all of these things appeal to some aspect of my character.  I feel in an experimental mode, wondering what will "take" in this community.  I am an oddball here, as is my fiance, so finding a "fit" or niche is going to take some inventiveness. Some things, like the scanning and family memoribilia production, do not have geographic limitations. Others do. Neither of us has much spare change to put toward this experimentation. But I'll move forward by inches and see what happens.

Making no attempt to create this harmony of place/needs/services/me/income is what's intolerable to me. It's going to be a more complicated puzzle than I'd hoped for but it doesn't seem impossible or scary. In fact, there MUST be a way because my life requires it. I just need to watch, listen, experiment.  These are things I'm good at. I'm even good at networking when I have the time. What I need is better marketing skills and/or to find someone who has them--or to just be patient as word of mouth does its work.