Re-emerging Into the World
Gradually ending years of wintering
“We flatter ourselves by thinking this compulsion to please others an attractive trait: a gift for imaginative empathy, evidence of our willingness to give. We play roles doomed to failure before they are begun, each defeat generating fresh despair at the necessity of divining and meeting the next demand made upon us. To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves … there lies the great singular power of self-respect.”
🎭 Joan Didion
“I will soothe you and heal you,
I will bring you roses.
I too have been covered with thorns.”
🎭 Rumi
It’s taken nearly 60 years but finally I’ve accepted my nature as an introverted person, delighted to be alone. I’m no longer furtive about or ashamed of it.
And the process, paradoxically, has got me slowly un-hibernating. Being alone is deprogramming in a frantic world. I can rejoin it now that I’m far more myself.
Perhaps you can relate to this?
