I am an introvert.
I like to be alone. A lot.
My idea of being friendly to strangers is to nod my head when I walk by.
My idea of a great vacation is to read all day long every day. Then to take a walk and think about what I just read.
I am married to a man who actually talks to strangers. As in, engages in conversations. He admires their dog, asks the dog’s name, wants to know where they’re from, then tells them where we’re from and where we used to live and why he’s enjoying the sunshine and missing his dog.
So when my blog team suggested I write more about myself, be more personal and knowable, I just stared at these delightful girls sitting at my dining room table and said nothing.
But as all introverts know, just because I don’t talk a lot certainly doesn’t mean I suffer a deficit of words. Introverts actually do talk - we just talk internally. I am a chatterbox really. I just talk inside, long running dialogues about everything I see and smell and hear and feel and think and wonder.
Here, my dear friends are some of those ramblings:
Where I am right now: staying in a nice little condo right across from the beach in California for a week
Why? To soak our pasty-white skin in sunshine… and to make some progress on the spiritual parenting seminar we’re working on… to see our daughter who lives in L.A.
What I miss from home: The rain (don't tell Phil), my dog, my kids, my grandkids.
Where I would live if I could live anywhere in the world: Portland, Oregon
What I’m reading right now: The Hobbit (I know, I know, you thought I was going to mention something super-spiritual!)
What I’m dreaming of doing someday: Writing a lovely fantastical tale for my grandkids— stocked full of fierce dragons and elusive unicorns and mystical creatures.
What I’m actually writing right now: My story. The whole sordid tale of my failure to accept my deafness with grace and then God’s shocking sufficiency and His beautiful way of speaking in my silence.
How it’s coming: S.L.O.W.
Why: Because I’m dabbling. And doing too much other stuff at the same time.
What other stuff? Preparing a new series for the blog, writing the spiritual parenting seminar Phil and I plan to teach Memorial Day weekend, plus all the other stuff that takes up space in a full life.
What I’m learning: To listen. To stop striving and just be still. To receive, not passively but actively. And that sometimes I don’t get done what I want to get done because I don’t have a plan of how and when I’m going to get it done.
What haunts me: My need for people’s approval.
What I’d love to do someday: Take the whole family to Disneyland and stay in a hotel together and eat and laugh and talk and tease and take pictures and just play for a week.
What I’m enjoying: Instagram. I’m addicted. I love the pictures of babies and the off-beat humor and those brief glimpses into people’s real lives.
Okay, enough about me.
What about you?
Where are you right now? What are you enjoying? What haunts you?
If I can do it so can you…
From my heart,
Diane