I Say Potato....

My "beach read" this past vacation was a book called The Introvert Advantage by Marti Olsen Laney. A nice, quick read, nothing too heavy, but something that made me sit up and think.

The author says that we all basically are either extroverted (outies) or introverted (innies). Our predominant culture tends to value the extrovert's traits (go-getter, breadth of experience, high energy) over the introvert's ones (slower pace, depth of experience, hanging back a bit before joining in). Also, there are more extroverts than introverts; about a 3:1 ratio.

So if you're an "innie", and especially if you grew up in a family of extroverts, you may think there is something basically wrong with you. You don't fit in. You're slow. You're boring. You're anti-social. And so on.

Well, this book was good news to me. Affirmation that I am not wrong, merely different. I have suspected this for the past few years, but I was more sure after reading the book. I think I want to send Ms. Laney flowers!

I thought about my relationships, particulary the ones closest to my heart: my husband, my daughter, my mom. They are all extroverts to the nth degree. I am finding myself being more patient with them lately, and understanding their impatience with me. I also know why my son and I seem to get along so well. It is not that he's my favorite (as my daughter claims), but that we are pretty much on the same page.

The world needs both kinds of people. All "innies", and we wouldn't get anything done. All "outies", and we would flit from one thing to another without thinking things through. We are all valuable; we are all necessary.

Vive le difference!

Vacation

A home away from home.

Time with family and friends.

A good place.

Be back in a week.

Blessed Are They

Green was only green, shades
of darker and lighter, before
the quilt was finished.
Afterward innumerable hues sprang
from every Leaf, Blade, and Fern.

Cutting piecing, sewing, joining
sides together compels
the eye to distinguish
Cedar, Spruce, Fir,
Grasses great with seed.


The Heart then learns to honor
the strength of Stem and Leaf
beneath the blossom’s boast.




My friend, Elaine, once said,"Until I started quilting I never noticed how many different shades of green there are."

That remark, made in an offhand manner, stuck with me and eventually inspired a poem. The first, I might add, that I have written in a couple of years. I believe that little comment is an important one for me.

It is so easy to be bored with the little chores and errands that make up a greater portion of most of our lives. It is easy to rush through them, to treat them as if they don't matter in the big picture. It is easy to feel unimportant when our work is unnoticed, not glamorous, and unapplauded.

But I believe with all my heart that every mundane chore, every inconvenient errand, every unappreciated kindness that we perform comes with its own reward, or blessing, if you will. And that blessing is the opportunity to be a little more mindful of all the wonderful things around us. All the overlooked, yet essential things that surround us. And to feel blessed, cared for, and valuable beyond measure.