We’ve all been there:

Standing gob smacked in the middle of some party or gaggle of colleagues or relatives when ‘whoosh’ we left our bodies and watched from a corner somewhere while we tried (in vain) to act like we fit in; like we belonged to that world, that life.

Except we don’t.

And we never will.

For much of my life, I took aim at that bullseye and tried to hit it.

As fate would have it, though, I missed the mark.

Instead, I looked for those errant arrows in a field three blocks from where everyone else had the time of their lives.

Just as well.

I appreciated my time alone with the cat (or dog or senile, non-verbal relative), drinking wine or scribbling in my journal.

This is what it’s like to be an empath.

You feel too much.

You see everything. You note the body language and discomfort and lies. The feelings of others hit you, knock you to the ground, and make it difficult to breathe or think.

As a kid, I felt overwhelmed by the chatter and bullshit I saw. By the clouds that trailed behind certain people and the angry critters others carried in their arms. The world felt like Pandora’s box: a litany of slime and omission, of half-truths and innuendo.

I preferred soloing.

Much safer. Much more likely to turn out well for me.

I guess my advice for my empathic tribe is this:

If anything or anyone requires that you become ‘less than’ yourself or that you must jam yourself into a glass slipper five sizes too small, walk away.

Walk away from anything and anyone whose agenda for you is to make you cram your bigness into a tiny space.

Learn from the mistakes I’ve made.

The broken bones, the pinched toes. The amputations and obliterations.

Don’t fit in. Stand out.

There are plenty of lemmings. What the world most needs are people who are neither afraid of the dark nor frightened by their own light.

Bring your shadow and your story with you. Bring the darkness and the phosphorescent beauty of your inner light.

We need you. We need people who are whole.

People who are incandescently completely themselves.

Don’t aim for being understood by those who cannot see beyond this 3-D world.

Aim for sitting with others just like you, marveling at the strange beauty of the stars.

***

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Copyright 2017  Shavawn M. Berry All rights reserved