What If.....

By Rosalyn Harwood, Guest Writer

As an empath I spent many years feeling different, not understanding myself and not being understood at times by others. Lately I have been working on crossing the street into the sunshine and areas of positive possibilities. I have invited my gifts and talents to come along and play at this game we call life.

As a child, I was fascinated with art, and costume and fabric and texture and the whole area of tactile feelings. Being an empath, much of my information came through a "feeling corridor;" feelings were a language I was attempting to decipher. As a child, I dreamt of going to NY to become a Fashion Designer. I saw my future self winning an Oscar for designing a motion picture. My dreams were a great source of inspiration to me and at difficult times a form of solace.

Well, life took several turns and twists and I never got to fulfill my dream, but there it was in the back of my mind beckoning me to express. I still longed to create and transform items to things of beauty. After years of jobs taken to pay the bills and feeling my life force going down a drain, experiencing many emotions, many of them negative, I embarked upon a change this year and started doing my designs and creating wearable art.

Along the way a funny thing started to happen. I found that if I stayed in play mode that things seemed to flow. I learned to accept the feelings and stay with them. Since most of the emotions came through as a "feeling," at times I would have to stop and ask the feeling if it was "mine" or even what was all about. I found that sometimes like a ball of tangled yarn, I would have to unwind the apparent feeling to get to the core issue that was coming up for me to cleanse and clear.

As I practiced being playful and positive and accepting of what was being created, I also noticed a theme of help being provided by my team of "invisible helpers." I found myself being guided to inspiration on websites and led to books that taught me new techniques of manipulating fabric. Since I have always loved collage many of the pieces I created would be small samples that I would then lay aside, not quite sure why I had created them.

I was perusing the Amazon website when I came across a book on a designer from Holland, Koos van den Akker and I ordered a copy. When the book came, I opened it and got a major "ah ha" moment. Koos is famous for doing collage wearable art
pieces. In that moment I KNEW that I was being guided and taught on many levels and many planes. I realized how fortunate I was to know there are many realms and regions accessible to me as an empath that we are never truly alone, but connected to a vast network of helpers.

I now wake up each morning excited to see what the day has to bring and go to bed at night thanking my guides, angels and friends in spirit that have chosen to work with me. I know that I need never feel alone or different or less than as I connect with loved ones who have passed on yet still send us love and good thoughts. I am excited to open myself up to the many possibilities of accessing information to help myself and others through my gifts as an empath.

In the past, I often found myself battling with the critical self I accepted from others that said that I wasn't "good enough." Recently, I have learned to quiet that critical creature and I have learned to be more loving and accepting of all that was coming into my life. In my journey, I have looked over, under and around all those past negative events and have now, finally, "crossed the street." As I brought the negative emotions into the sunlight I asked to see what they were there to teach me. Mostly and always it was about loving and accepting myself.

I now live in the land of What If....What if being an empath is the 21st century equivalent of being a computer geek? What if the world will come to realize that there is more than what can be perceived by our 5 senses? What if our sensitivity is a great gift that can help the world? What if we see ourselves as the norm and learn to accept and acknowledge our worth? What if we collectively worked to envision a world of peace and plenty. What if we truly knew that our being here on Earth at this time was not a mistake, but a divine destination and it is all in divine order.

What if you woke up tomorrow morning and saw yourself and your life as a gift to be treasured?

- Rosalyn Harwood