So I’m joining the NaBloPoMo group this month – making a commitment to blog daily in January! The theme is “energy” which too often is in short supply.
There are daily prompts … here are the ones for yesterday and today: From where do you draw your energy? Which daily tasks take up the most of your energy?
On the scale between extroverts and introverts, I lean far to the introversion scale. I gain energy from the inside, from downtime, from time to think, pray, process, meditate. I require quiet to energize.
Teaching requires enormous energy for me … not just the act of delivering lessons. No, the energy drain is the interaction, the barrage of stimulation that comes from interacting with people (students, colleagues) all day. That’s not a negative for me … I intentionally choose teaching … but it is one that I have to carefully balance with enough quiet time to re-fuel.
Today, my last day of the holiday break, I am reminded that Isaiah writes:
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint. (NIV, 1984)
As I look to tomorrow, gearing up for this next semester, I purposefully remind myself that my strength (energy) comes from knowing my creator and the desires, the calling he put within me. I am eager for school to begin again, into planning already. And at the same time, today I want to pamper myself with quiet activities … a little reading, a little blogging, maybe even a little gardening … creating an oasis through which I am energized!
Related articles
- NaBloPoMo January 2013 Prompts (blogher.com)
- NaBloPoMo Soup: Add Your January Posts (blogher.com)
- Embracing Introversion: Ways to Stimulate Reserved Students in the Classroom | Edutopia (inspirededucationalist.wordpress.com)
- Introverts are Not Failed Extroverts (psychologytoday.com)
- TED’s still talking… I’m still listening… (quietmemories.wordpress.com)
- Quiet (designmom.com)
- An introverted call to action: Susan Cain at TED2012 (ted.com)
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