Day 57: Empathy and Intuition isn't Native to Adulthood

Okay, as a good friend pointed out today, it's time to recommit. Much has been going on, but in the past I never let it affect my ability to write daily whiny self-indulgent blogs, so the break's over!

Lately I was thinking about the movie "Powder." Not sure who else might remember it, but there is a scene when the title character, cruelly nicknamed "Powder" for his very pale skin, channels the assumed fear and pain of a just-shot deer into the hunter that shot it by touching both. Powder is an empath. He is a conduit for the emotions flowing to and from any one who touches him, basically making him a raw nerve of emotion and a conduit that flows from another into him. The movie was so-so, but the message stayed with me and as an adult I often find myself wishing for that ability to transfer true intent and emotion to another without life experience cluttering up the message.

Children first learn by trying and then by intuition. They pick up on the moods of those closest to them so that if the Mother is upset or stressed the baby will become agitated. I assume this to be because as babies and toddlers, unable to communicate through language they bond first by instinct and usually overlooked signs. The increased pulse, shallow breaths, rigid neck and shoulder muscles -- all signs of heightened stress, pain, or fear. Then too, is the possibility of a different pheromone being given off during such emotional states and babies, being new and uncluttered, might be more attune to that as well.

Overall, there is an honesty to the emotions transferred and received that one cannot fake with words or smiles. As adults we're a bit like the boy that cried wolf and too many disingenuous compliments, comments, promises, etc., all contribute to a mounting inability to distinguish the real from the artificial. So how wonderful might it be to actually have the ability to transfer one's heartfelt emotions to another? Look into my heart, feel what I'm telling you, know it's real. Sounds like a lot of melodramatic rot, but if it were possible how many miscommunications due to mistrust, poor timing, past betrayal might be avoided?

We'd know if our love were serious about their feelings, if they really meant that apology, if we could risk our heart one more time or if we should walk away. If you could feel what I feel, you'd know my words are real, my promises are honest and my apologies are deep and sorrowful. If you could feel what is truly inside my heart and mind, maybe you'd release that tight grip you have on yours and just . . . breathe. Take a few deep breaths, close your eyes, open your heart and . . . try. I may not be able to make you feel what I feel, but I promise to spend the rest of my life trying to prove it to you. That choice to let me, however, is still up to you. So forget what experience and adulthood have conditioned you to believe and instead, trust that intuition that just will not let you completely walk away. There's a message there that your heart wants you to hear and to follow. Trust me. Feel what I feel.