Day Five: Solitude

Oh, I am so thankful for solitude!  I need it - no, I crave it!  I am one of those people who gets a little nuts (translate: cranky)  if I don't have some time alone to re-group on a regular basis.  And I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to spend a part of each day alone.  I stay at home, my daughter goes off to school and my husband goes off to work each day.  I am not anti-social.  I love my family and my friends.  But being around someone 24/7 makes me exhausted, physically and mentally.  Solitude rejuvenates me.  Even if I am doing housework, yard work, grocery shopping, writing, or whatever, I am working things out in my head, and that's what I need to do without someone else talking to me.

I know I am not the only person like this.  I read a book once called "Raising Your Spirited Child" by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka.  She talked about how different personalities replenish their energy stores in different ways.  Some people feed off the energy of others and are therefore replenished by social interaction, such as a party.  Others, like me, are replenished by 'time out'.  So if your child comes home from school and heads straight for his/her bedroom and shuts the door for a while or zones out with the headphones on and doesn't want to talk to you, maybe it's nothing personal but rather a way of coping after being around people all day.

I guess this came to mind today because it's a 3 day weekend here (Monday is Teachers' Workshop at our school).  So no quiet time around here for me for the next 3 days.  That's ok, I just remind myself how quickly she grows, right before my eyes!