Oh yes… being an empath isn't something you can shut off. I tried for 20 years or more. But ultimately, I think it's being an empath that protected me in those bad old days – I'm convinced it's why I'm the only one of my immediate kin to NOT be a fundamentalist evangelical Pentecostal believer.

That's mother, father, and three sisters lost to that exclusionary darkness. It's heartbreaking, really. Their lived through a black and white lens. They never lived the full, brilliant light and vibrant color of life in every hue and shade of the spectrum.

I think that's tragic. Don't you?