Introvertedness

I felt a small tap on my arm.   I turned to have a look, and a young girl told me, “If you want quiet, go outside the room.”

She was right.  It was loud and echo-y where we were, and full of people.

I think she pulled the smart move and left the room, whereas I decided to stay.

Classic introvertedness, that much is certain.

There has been much ado about introverts on social media, off and on in the last little while.

And tonight, I’m feeling it.

I've felt this more often than I care to admit ...

 The overwhelmed, “I’m tired and I just want to run away and hide!” feeling. My voice is also hoarse because I’ve been talking more than I usually do.

And possibly louder, too.

Today I found myself in a place I haven’t been to in quite some time, and where I am known. So there was a lot of “HEY!  Long time no see!  How are you?!”  Over and over and over again.

This perfectly describes some - but not all - days.

To be fair, they were all conversations I wanted to have.  And they’re all wonderful people. And I would have loved to be able to sit down with each and every one of them to find out what’s new, what’s going on, and to share my life with them.

But I would have preferred to spread out these chats over a month. Maybe two. So I’m crashing right now. 

One lesson I’ve had to re-learn over and over and over again is that I can’t do everything. I’ve said “No” to many things. And I will continue to say “No.” Probably more often than I want to.  Not because I don’t want to, but because I want to make sure that I can say “Yes” wholeheartedly to other things.

Naps really are awesome. And a great way to re-charge.

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)

That’s the verse we were challenged with at church today.  And what I learned is that the use of “number” here shares a similar meaning to “Appoint” or “Prepare”. Because in reality we don’t know how many days we actually have.  So we need to make the best of our days.

I’m slowly learning that means ensuring my weekends have some down time and that I don’t have something planned every single night of the week.  Because running from one thing to another, frazzled and tired, and really, really wanting introverted time is not going to help me or anyone I am with.

It also means not getting involved in too many things and recognizing what I can and cannot do at any point in my life.

And it means not comparing myself to others.  Because let’s be honest: we all have different energy levels, different gifts and different capacities for handling large workloads.  Just because someone can juggle a full-time job, a couple kids, train for a marathon AND leading a ministry at their local church doesn’t mean I can.

Nor does it mean I would want to

Still, there are some very neat opportunities out there that I would love to jump at. But I have to ask myself more regularly “What will it cost me to do so?”

If I'm ever pregnant and I need to go out in public, THIS will be my shirt from the moment I start showing ...