tribal

I'm happy that Susan Cain has written a book (currently a nytimes bestseller) about the unique challenge many of us intrinsically 'Quiet' people face in our society...
(her talk on TED.com recently about the book is delightful. she makes a great comment about the irony of an introvert's job being to go out and speak to large groups about it (!) so it is inspiring how she approached it and labeled this her 'year of speaking dangerously'.)

I personally don't think of all quieter people as introverts, and thus all louder people as extroverts, but rather at our core, we all fall somewhere along a spectrum. And I feel it is beneficial to have the awareness of where we ourselves generally are on that spectrum, and to also be aware that about one-third of those among us are much more on the higher sensitivity end of the spectrum (the bulk of whom are also introverts but many are also extroverts as Elaine Aron brilliantly speaks to here). Included in my Living in Possibility quest is an individual path toward self-acceptance that leads to self-celebration (of course I don't mean this in an egoic/outward achievement sense but in an inward, Divine knowing way), at whatever volume works.

please be careful with me

I'm sensitive

and I'd like to stay that way

~Jewel

One way of getting along with it all is allowing

more space around each situation. 

these days, I try to give myself

the freedom to be

situationally:

*extroverted ~ sometimes this is necessary and I do enjoy stretching in this way on occasion.
*quiet ~ this one comes naturally, while claiming it as a rejuvenative and creative necessity does not.
*vegetarian ~ all about balance and striving toward inner and outer harmonization. as my body, as well as my understanding of its nutritional needs combined with the broader impact of our individual and collective choices evolves, so have my eating choices.
*and tribal ~ it seems the further I travel along life's highway the more I engage with the concept/cost of contending with the proverbial square peg/round hole. And I am truly blessed to feel connected with several tribes along the spectrum, though this hsp/quiet/introvert/extrovert stuff is largely unspoken. I intend to dance more with my perceived danger of speaking to this...

☀

Always remember that you are absolutely unique.

Just like everyone else.

~anthropologist Margaret Mead

☀