Good morning world. I woke up up this morning feeling fatigued and unready to open up the curtains. Can I stay in bed all day? No, no. Get up. Get somewhat ready, because you have commitments to follow through on. Get up. You don't have to be perfectly put together together today- you just need to be there. Emotional shrapnel is lodged into my skin. I don't want to go out, because I don't want othr people to see it. I feel like I need to spend the day picking it out.

Can someone else pretend to be me for a few hours today?

Souvenir Socks

Watch cars as they pass.
Make names for the drivers.
As your skin melts toward the ground
And your mind reaches to the moon
Their made-up futures pulsing through your brain

You are a transit center
Travelers pass through
Leave socks that fell from leather luggage
A Stranger's socks-- Black tubes, and Hanes
Musty with the regret

I knew the owner once
She slept in my bed
And kept her hand in my heart
I knew the owner once
She caressed my skin
And squeezed my spirit tight

I don't know when she left
But I felt the air as she passed
Traveled through-- this transit center of a heart
Leaving socks as souvenirs.

--Crys

Introverted iNtuiting Feeling Judging

by Marina Margaret Heiss

INFJs are distinguished by both their complexity of character and the unusual range and depth of their talents. Strongly humanitarian in outlook, INFJs tend to be idealists, and because of their J preference for closure and completion, they are generally "doers" as well as dreamers. This rare combination of vision and practicality often results in INFJs taking a disproportionate amount of responsibility in the various causes to which so many of them seem to be drawn.

INFJs are deeply concerned about their relations with individuals as well as the state of humanity at large. They are, in fact, sometimes mistaken for extroverts because they appear so outgoing and are so genuinely interested in people -- a product of the Feeling function they most readily show to the world. On the contrary, INFJs are true introverts, who can only be emotionally intimate and fulfilled with a chosen few from among their long-term friends, family, or obvious "soul mates." While instinctively courting the personal and organizational demands continually made upon them by others, at intervals INFJs will suddenly withdraw into themselves, sometimes shutting out even their intimates. This apparent paradox is a necessary escape valve for them, providing both time to rebuild their depleted resources and a filter to prevent the emotional overload to which they are so susceptible as inherent "givers." As a pattern of behavior, it is perhaps the most confusing aspect of the enigmatic INFJ character to outsiders, and hence the most often misunderstood -- particularly by those who have little experience with this rare type.

Due in part to the unique perspective produced by this alternation between detachment and involvement in the lives of the people around them, INFJs may well have the clearest insights of all the types into the motivations of others, for good and for evil. The most important contributing factor to this uncanny gift, however, are the empathic abilities often found in Fs, which seem to be especially heightened in the INFJ type (possibly by the dominance of the introverted N function).

This empathy can serve as a classic example of the two-edged nature of certain INFJ talents, as it can be strong enough to cause discomfort or pain in negative or stressful situations. More explicit inner conflicts are also not uncommon in INFJs; it is possible to speculate that the causes for some of these may lie in the specific combinations of preferences which define this complex type. For instance, there can sometimes be a "tug-of-war" between NF vision and idealism and the J practicality that urges compromise for the sake of achieving the highest priority goals. And the I and J combination, while perhaps enhancing self-awareness, may make it difficult for INFJs to articulate their deepest and most convoluted feelings.

Usually self-expression comes more easily to INFJs on paper, as they tend to have strong writing skills. Since in addition they often possess a strong personal charisma, INFJs are generally well-suited to the "inspirational" professions such as teaching (especially in higher education) and religious leadership. Psychology and counseling are other obvious choices, but overall, INFJs can be exceptionally difficult to pigeonhole by their career paths. Perhaps the best example of this occurs in the technical fields. Many INFJs perceive themselves at a disadvantage when dealing with the mystique and formality of "hard logic", and in academic terms this may cause a tendency to gravitate towards the liberal arts rather than the sciences. However, the significant minority of INFJs who do pursue studies and careers in the latter areas tend to be as successful as their T counterparts, as it is *iNtuition* -- the dominant function for the INFJ type -- which governs the ability to understand abstract theory and implement it creatively.

In their own way, INFJs are just as much "systems builders" as are INTJs; the difference lies in that most INFJ "systems" are founded on human beings and human values, rather than information and technology. Their systems may for these reasons be conceptually "blurrier" than analogous NT ones, harder to measure in strict numerical terms, and easier to take for granted -- yet it is these same underlying reasons which make the resulting contributions to society so vital and profound.

Tegan and Sara,

Can we hang out tonight?

http://youtu.be/WZHGeg_0Rlo

An INFJ Explosion

I am having an INFJ explosion right now. It started last night and then I felt the deprivation of art. I think an INFJ explosion may be better explained as an implosion, but I am so disoriented that it is difficult to tell the difference.

Over the last year, I felt more that I was criticising myself, when this just happens to be my personality type. We have types and that is okay.

I need abstraction, and novels, and thai food, and a bandaid for my heart.

I could fell it for awhile, but I had been so distracted by school and the mission that I am pursuing that I didn't realize that the person that I loved was being entangled by someone else's affections. I knew in October/November. It changed, and that is why I couldn't be open. I was defensive.

How odd, how you can love a person and even though they love you, it is muted or altered because of the strong feeling (or I would even venture to say love) that someone else has for that person. And, its like, how didn't you know. How didn't you know that they loved you and they thought about you two being together for so long. There must have been more signs, and I wasn't even there and I could feel them. I could feel our dynamic change.

I thought that I had fallen out of love, but I could really just feel that the love was faded in some way and it wasn't genuine and untouched. And now its like a movie reel in my head. All th moments that I felt it. The same feeling that I felt last night when I read those texts, I had felt that before and now they are stringing themselves together like a movie- a really horrible movie.

I just read them over and over and over again last night, and felt it permeate into my heart. Truly loving someone is dangerous and you don't even know how deeply you feel that until you know what made that love change.

"wandering between two worlds-- one dead, the other powerless to be born."

Time to Turn Those Scars Into Action

"...but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says 'I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of dirct action'; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a 'more convenient season.' Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptence is much more bewildering than outright rejection."- MLK Jr.