When to shut the door….

Something that has been increasingly clear to me is the fact that I am not the extravert that I had always thought myself to be.

Don’t get me wrong…I love people more than anything, but I am learning that I am better at loving people when I take the time to enjoy solitude.

For some reason, we as human beings, can never appreciate the thing that are staring us in the face. If we spend every moment alone, or if we spend every moment in the company of other people, we never learn to appreciate either.

One of the requirements of my internship is that I take some time every week to practice a spiritual discipline. The discipline that I have spent some of this semester working on is the practice of solitude and silence. This has been next to impossible for me to take the initiative for…because I never actively crave time alone, and I truly dislike silence.

Surprisingly, I have found that intentionally being alone and being quiet makes me love the fun, beautiful, noisy collection of people that I serve so much more.

Despite the fact that it takes real effort to make solitude a priority, I am increasingly convinced that a Resident Director cannot serve well without it.