Marvelous Monday

Ahhh, Monday. Now there's a phrase you don't hear very often. But now that I'm retired, the peace and quiet on Monday morning when I'm alone in my own house, everyone else is where they're supposed to be and the and the promise of a brand new week stretches ahead…..there's nothing like it.

Don't get me wrong. I love my weekends with my family. And this past weekend was an especially busy one, filled with sister time, fun with friends and lots to do. A writers' conference on Saturday that offered the opportunity for meeting with people I usually see only on Facebook. Dinner and a show with longtime friends. Church with my choir friends, singing some fabulous Palm Sunday music.

And so today I breathe. And that's exactly what the introvert who lurks inside me needs.

"I am an introverted extrovert. That means I can show up big and shiny but am an introvert at heart." 
www.facebook.com/DailyTransformations

Those who know me would laugh at the idea that I consider myself an introvert at all, but that's because I'm not introverted around them. Around friends and under certain circumstances, I am indeed big and shiny (all five feet zero inches of me). But without quiet time to recharge, I am grouchy and, well, not-so-shiny.

Most writers have at least a little bit of introvert in them. While we may get our ideas in chaotic environments, we nurture them in quiet times. Though we treasure time with friends and family, we need to balance it with time alone -- one part social, one part solitude. Each introvert has her own perfect ratio.

And so on Sundays, when my family is less-than-enthusiastic about what Monday holds, I try to keep my eagerness to myself. But I know that as soon as the door closes behind my daughter on Monday morning, I will start my day. My schedule. My routine. I will write and plan and clean and organize, though rarely all on the same Monday. I will relish the silence that seemed overwhelming those first few Mondays when all the world was occupied and I was at home defining the next stage of my life.  I will begin work on the somewhat overwhelming list of wonderful things I hope to accomplish in the next five days -- a list which usually includes coffee dates or lunch dates that keep me from becoming a hermit who works in her pajamas. I will feed the creative part of my soul in these quiet hours so that the social part of my soul is hungry when my family returns home, ready to live in this house that is my workshop for so many hours each week.

Every Monday, I begin the task of nurturing the part of me that is introverted so I can revel in the part that is extroverted. And today, it is time to begin again.