An Unrecognized Minority and Playing the Song of Life

So I finally bought the book The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World by Marti Olsen Laney. I've only read the prelude and overture, but I can already tell it's going to be a favorite. Why? Because it will speak in plain language many things that I have felt and experienced my entire life but have been unable to express or articulate even to myself much less to others.

In the prelude, the author speaks of experiences during her childhood that bring back so many memories for me. Getting up the courage to raise your hand in class when you finally have an articulate statement to make to bolster that participation grade only to find that when the teacher calls on you your mind goes blank. Always thinking of a million ideas, comments, observations, feelings, opinions to share an hour too late. Finding the well-versed thoughts in your mind stumbling out in incoherent sentences one moment and having others tell you that you are well-spoken and concise the next. And the author didn't state this specifically, but wondering why no one else seems to struggle with these same issues, as well. She does however, give an answer to why it seems that no one else has these struggles: 75% of the world is extroverted, she states.

I am of course curious how they determined that statistic, but it is easy for me to believe that the majority of at least the American population is extroverted. And that the introverts are even more difficult to notice because we live in an extroverted society. I'm curious if she will discuss the different orientations of cultures in this respect.

Anyway, I also wanted to comment that in the conclusion to her overture, she tells the reader that the book is to be "played with" just as life is meant to be played with. And having the predisposition to take myself too seriously, I appreciated this suggestion. Especially in light of my recent post of letting go. What is this life on earth if one cannot play with the possibilities and laugh off the clinkers? Clinker...I like that. I looked up synonyms for "failure," ha. Clinker is defined as "something that is unsatisfactory, of poor quality, or a failure; a wrong musical note." It's that last definition that grabbed me. Life is a song to be played, and sometimes we hit wrong notes. I fear I have been hitting one wrong note for several months now, and it's made my song sound rather dreadful. And I think it has everything to do with the fact that I forget that life is a song. I was listening to Caedmon's Call this week (their songs can always grab my heart) and this line really convicted me:

"Lord, when you listen for the song of my life, let it be, let it be a song so sweet..."

I want my life to be a sweet song to my Lord's ears. So I want to play with life, to take out the clinkers and create a beautiful melody as He leads me in the right key and rhythm.