Confessions of an Empath

I am a wind chime, trembling
in the breeze of distant sighs.

(I don't even know if people read this blog but I thought I would explain that this image/poem is a short form of the poem you will find here: https://contemplativephotographer.blogspot.com/2018/02/affetuoso.html  and both were written because there was a shooting on our island yesterday, which happened while my husband was driving his school bus full of children. I knew his bus route went by the shooting only minutes after it happened, so I knew he'd have to take steps to protect the kids, and would have some adrenaline rushing through him by the time he got home, but I hadn't anticipated how my own levels would elevate in response as he told his story. 

We are so deeply affected by what happens in the world around us -- butterflies in one hemisphere causing typhoons in another -- and sometimes, if you allow yourself to listen to your body, you can feel that responsive trembling. If only we could attune ourselves to the trembling of the world, perhaps we would protect it more tenderly...