How It All Started -- Part 1

     OK, here's the story of how it all started.

     I was driving down the road near a retirement community and traffic was heavy and slow.  I remember that people were trying to get through a light which seemed to be short-cycling, and suddenly the folks in front of me braked suddenly.  I braked suddenly.  The lady behind me didn't. 

     Crash, tinkle, tinkle . . . . tinkle.

     The little old woman who hit my tiny car was driving a big old Olds.  Her blah beige car didn't register a scratch.  Mine had some major damage to the rear.  And I had the worst headache.  I remember sitting on the curb by the edge of the road (and did any of those other people stop to help?  Noooooo -- they were more focused on getting through that dumb light), holding my head and trying not to throw up.  Not a very glamorous moment.

     It turns out that I ended up with a moderately severe case of whiplash (chiropractic is great, but deep tissue massage is better -- take my word for it), and a mild concussion.  Sounds pretty easy, once you past the initial pain, right?

     Well, in my case, it took months before I could read the paper again and understand it, before I could put together a coherent sentence without stopping to find words, before I didn't have to rely on a reminder list for every daily task. 

     But, after my brain and body healed, I found that I had gained a new ability.  My natural empathy had multiplied in strength.  (I know, you were expecting me to say I could leap buildings in a single bound, or had x-ray vision or something, right?).  I could sense what others felt, even across many miles; I could even sometimes "hear" what they were thinking.  I was inundated by others' feelings and moods.  The driver in front of me, a person walking by, someone who brushed up against me in the store --- they would all be sources of feelings that would infect me.  I was inundated by these passing feelings and moods that weren't mine.  It was tough to take, and sometimes I worried about my sanity.

     Next time, I'll talk about how I learned to cope with being an empath, and what this has to do with Twin Souls (really!).