Undervalued Introvert
from Out With Lanterns, a daily poetry practice
It takes great courage to be a well-rested woman in a world where quiet, solitude, and introspection are denigrated, made wrong. But if we’re all wild monkeys, there will be too many primates and the turtles and snails and voles and moles will go extinct and we’ll all be competing, fighting for small slivers of sustenance and silence and space. I don’t know what I mean, it’s just that I do not feel bad for preferring to stay home, stay comfortable, rest. I never knew a rested woman when I grew up. Everyone in my lineage was taught to glorify busy, to run herself ragged, to pull on the martyr mask daily. I refuse. I sit down when I want to sit down. I take long pauses, stop and feel sun on my shoulders. I plant flowers, bake cakes, walk the dog, breathe. It’s a gift to be able to break the cycle of go-go-go, daring to say no thank you to the invitation. Instead: curl up, read, watch a movie, nap, dig some underground tunnels, befriend the worms.
Amen to that! Easy to fall prey to the incessant buzz of busy-ness.
I’m still a rest ‘in progress’ but as I try to shake the need of accomplishment, I watch my stepmom move incessantly, practically panicked that her time is running out.