INFJ lack of Reflection

No Reflection by Cheryl Merrick

I make a comment

and the room suddenly quiets.

After an awkward moment,
all resumes as before.

I mention I write,

again the embarrassed silence,

followed by a change of subject.

Could I really think so differently

that others have no idea 

how to respond to me?

Sharing my talent,

I watch as others shrink away,

uncomfortable by the unfamiliar,

so that I see no reflection of me

in their eyes.

I wrote this after mentioning what I was writing to a friend who is an ISTJ. We have been friends for many years sharing our struggles with dealing with chronic health problems, but she can not identify with all the ideas that race through my mind. I know that being an INFJ means that there are few that understand how I think and even fewer that appreciate it. It is sometimes lonely and other times it is invigorating to try to give people the perspective that they need so badly. The hardest thing for me to deal with is the blankness, the total lack of response, that I receive. I could deal with then saying that they didn't agree or even that they don't understand what I mean, but just pretending that I don't exist or hadn't just said something gives me a feeling of being invisible, of being unvalidated, of having no reflection at all.