Regaining Energy

            “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” Proverbs 16:9 (NIV1984)

            That verse has so often applied to my life, especially this summer. I thought I had some great posts planned out and ready to be scheduled during the past few months, however, the summer turned out to be a lot busier than I thought it would outside of the blogging community. In the last eight to ten weeks, I have had two, maybe three, full 24-hour days spent at home. I have been constantly on the go to work, church activities, shopping trips, and outings with friends and family. In early August, I went to an amazing youth conference as a youth worker/leader, and I am really glad I decided to go. Besides my job, I do enjoy all these aforementioned activities, but my introverted self is in desperate need of some alone time to recharge my energy. Without being recharged, I feel strained socially, mentally, and emotionally. If you have come across me, whether in person or online, I apologize if I seemed cross or unpleasant; it may have been one of those completely drained moments.

An important part of the blogging experience is the community, and I enjoy reading comments and posts from my fellow bloggers. Even though it is a lot easier for me to interact with people in writing, I do still consider blogging a form of social engagement and it has been hard to get into an interactive mood lately. So, what have I been doing with those seemly few hours I have at home? Mostly, I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching. I’ve been thinking about my personality and how it affects my choices and goals. I’ve been thinking about majors I should have picked in college, like psychology, neurology, or journalism. I’ve been thinking about my dreams and desires and wondering if some will ever be reached, like marriage. I’ve also spent a lot of time in prayer during this introspective process. I think God did use this socially-overwhelmed time to help me to spend my leftover time away from communicative activities and more into studying and learning by myself. I cannot say that this process is over, but I am ready to attempt to get back on a regular blog post schedule. I have been trying to get this particular post written for the last month, and here it finally is! The thing that has bothered me the most is all the work I put in to visit and meet new bloggers in April’s A to Z Challenge seems to have fallen apart during the summer. That is another area I should work on, consistency. Thanks to those of you who continue to bear with me! You are great friends!