Jillian Chantal

I bet you thought I was going to talk about Pearl Harbor since it’s Pearl Harbor day and I was until this morning when I decided I wanted to share a little about empaths. I have a dear friend who passed away this morning at around 1:00 am. She’s been ill for a while and since Sunday, we’ve been expecting her to pass away at any moment. I have not slept well in days for fretting over her and her family to whom I am very close. She’s one of the people that I’m not related to that I’ve had in my life the longest. She was 6 and I was 9 when we met – our dads worked together. Anyway, back to the empath thing. I’m an empath and I can sense a lot of times when someone I love is in distress even across miles. I didn’t sleep all week until last night when I finally, at 12:45 pm fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. I slept late and when I looked at the clock and realized how long I’d been out, my first thought was that Ingrid must be gone. I checked my computer and sure enough, her husband said she’d passed away around 1:00 am. It was like my body knew it and knew it was okay to stop my own personal vigil for her.

An empath is someone who is very intuitive and can read people. They can also take on the emotions of the people around them. This is pretty much why I’m not a hugger. I take on the sadness if someone is carrying a burden. I’ve spent my life avoiding funerals because I’m a mess the rest of the day even if I didn’t know the deceased and only the survivors because I feel the grief so intensely. I’ve learned to deal with being this way but it sometimes creeps in anyway. I’m sensitive to noise and smells. These are also signs of an empath. Here’s a link to a great article if you want more info (although I’m not buying the bi-polar part of the article). This article comes closest to describing what an empath is- at least my experience of it. I also believe it’s possible to be a Christian and be an empath as I am.

For a less depressing me today, visit me at my friend, Tab’s blog here. I’m talking about my New Orleans based short story.