Wednesday, February 8, 2012

189/365

I packed along my new book for my retreat weekend, and have not been disappointed in its content. Susan Cain takes a much different perspective in her book on introversion than Marti Laney does in the other book I own and love on the same topic. As I spent my weekend engaged in reading and other solitary activities, I found myself reflecting on the introverted temperament a lot. Both in the context of a group (Susan's perspective) as well as in the context of myself (Marti's perspective).

I had to chuckle on the Friday night--three of us introverts shared a room at the retreat centre, and we spent a good chunk of it in those pre-bedtime hours, each into our own book, not saying a single word to each other. And it was good. Nevertheless, my chuckle lay in the fact that I could imagine watching this scene as an extroverted fly on the wall. How strange any mysterious our social unit must have seemed!

It gave me cause to wonder if there was a single extrovert at this weekend.* There were two other groups, as well as a couple solo retreaters, at King's Fold for the weekend. At lunch, the staff lady commented, "boy, I don't know what you guys are doing, but it sure was quiet out there this morning." We had all split off into separate activities; sometimes alone, sometimes with one or two other people. Socializing at our own pace. Introverted perfection.

I enjoy the group of people that I was technically "there" with, but I sure did appreciate being able to pick and choose when I wanted to interact with any of them. I'm pretty sure some (if not all) of them felt the same in return. And I really admired that this was a safe place to be able to portray the attitude of, "I love being with you, but I feel like being on my own right now," and have it be perfectly okay.

What are you doing today?
I'm being myself.

189/365

*Introverts are outnumbered three to one; there must have been extroverts around, and my friends and I could name off a couple we suspected. They sure handled themselves well in what I'm pretty sure was an introvert-concentrated population. :)

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