“Summer
isn’t for introverts.”
There’s
a lot of extra nerve-jarring noise.
Windows
are open and others’ racket steps inside, an unwanted guest.
Cars
move faster, public areas burgeon; it feels like a crowded race to the Let’s
Have Fun finish line.
“Make
hay while the sun shines.” A “super extrovert” I know recently told me how
energizing and exciting it is to be around ‘weekend energy, parties,
entertaining friends’ and all I could feel for myself was the big drain opening
and sucking out the last lifeblood of calm and wellbeing.
Me?
I’d rather watch the grass grow.
Inhale
long and deeply while the last spring flower’s perfume arrives within me.
Slow
walks on the beach, fast walks along green spaces, climbing, hiking, treading
water: movement that sustains the bodily life, not diminishes it.
A
gentle hand reaching out to steady a stranger, the hug that enwraps a dear
friend, hands down on the growing, pulsing, waiting land; these connections
sustain emotional life.
Pausing,
listening, lying upright with ground as root support and the sky as palette for
the imagination; yep, these sustain the inner landscape: creative impulse,
spiritual source, connection to the divine.
Deep
immersion in a captivating book; working out solutions to a challenge; ruminating on philosophy, writing; or exploring new landscapes, cultures, opportunities: mental sustenance.
An introvert can handle these.
An introvert can handle these.
I
can thrive in the frozen heart of winter.
I
can sustain my soul through the first open buds of spring.
Summer
– even this I can embrace with some doses of the clamor…as long as a quiet
respite is at hand when I need it.
But
autumn? I’m gearing up for it. This is the true season of my being.
All blog images created & photographed by Jennifer J. Wilhoit unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: "©2017 JenniferJWilhoit/TEALarbor stories. AllRightsReserved."
