Avoiding Crowds on Labor Day Weekend

Gratitudes:
1. I'm grateful for fresh air to breathe.
2. I'm grateful for our connect group prayers.
3. I'm grateful for my art supplies.
Plan for the day:
1. Create art. Don't think about it - just do it.
2. Laundry - I need to go out and start it now.
3. Read something from each of my books in progress.
Currently reading:
1. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
2. Evelina, by Frances Burney
3. Braving the Thin Places
4. Driving Miss Norma
5. Battle for the American Mind

I do not even know where to start today. How about a current event? Our town holds a special festival every Labor Day weekend, and that starts this afternoon. There have been years I went to the festival. There have been years I worked there, selling, manning a booth, or volunteering some other way. But right now, my plan is to avoid going.

I'm not as young as I used to be. (No surprise there!) I'm seventy this year. I think that qualifies me for something. At the very least it qualifies me to be who I really am. 

I'm an introvert. I like seclusion, solitude, peace, and quiet. I don't like to be in crowds. 

A few years ago I was forced out of my seclusion during the pandemic because of a forest fire. I managed okay, going to the Red Cross shelter, getting a hotel room from them, living in a little city for two months... and living in a RV park for 17 months. But now I'm back on my land with my own private tiny yard on one side of the property, and I love being alone here to do my own thing all day long even if that just means taking as many naps as I want or need.

Even though I don't want to go to the festival and I know why (introversion, crowds, plantar fasciitis pain) I still feel a twinge of guilt. Why is that? I feel like participation is expected of me. I know one of my favorite local Christian singers will perform there on Sunday afternoon and I don't even plan to go to that. I don't plan to go to the parade tomorrow morning. I've seen so many of those parades. 

I just want to hang out in my solitude and let it all pass me by. But then I think, why miss out on such an event - it will never happen again! But Linda... there are many, many hundreds of thousands of events you will miss. Why is this one so special just because it is local?

I don't know. Hundreds of people in my tiny town will participate and be happy doing it. I'm the holdout, but I'm not telling anyone. I will ask my neighbor if she plans to take her children over there. I hope they go and have fun.