Re-Fueled By Quiet

I've always been a fairly outgoing person.  Maybe a little shy, reserved, and cautious, but outgoing and not afraid to speak to others.  I had a lot of friends in grade school and high school, dated a little, raised my hand to share in class, talked back to my mom, and enjoyed being on stage singing and dancing.  As an adult I have fewer friends, don't date, rarely talk back to my mom, and would sing or dance only in a crowed room after having a beverage or two. I speak freely in my job, make friendly acquaintances easily, I share portions of my story with anyone who might care enough to listen and share my spiritual beliefs when appropriate. I don't hesitate to talk to strangers, and I feel comfortable standing up for things that are important to me.  I would call myself an extrovert.  The odd paradigm is that at the end of the day or a busy week, I am re-fueled by quiet.

It has taken conflict in my marriage and lots of introspection before I began to realize that being with people making small talk and bouncing from one conversation to the next is exhausting to me.  I would much rather be part of a deep, meaningful conversation sitting at home with a glass of wine than to be among a large crowd of people all chattering across the room.  My brain often interprets the noise like the loud roar of a machine and I eventually step back and exit from the conversations being juggled around me.  In turn I look disconnected, uninterested, snobby, anti-social, and bored.

Tony is my polar opposite in this area as are most of the people in our circle.  It's important to Tony to go out and be social no matter how busy the week has been.  It's important to me to have some down time where I can just "be".  I need to quiet the noise in order to feel refreshed.

I wish before judgement came an effort to understand.  I'm guilty of this myself, passing judgement without seeking to understand where the other person might be.  I'm going to work on this.  I'm going to fail more times than get it right, but I'm going to work on it.

If I accept you for you, would you accept me for me?