Magic And Mystery

I believe in ghosts. Not the kind in white sheets or with mutilated faces or the walking dead type.

I believe in ghosts that live in the shadow of shadows….the ones you think you saw from the corner of your eye. But just as you turn to get a better look, they’re gone.

The kind of ghosts that communicate in whispers…you know what I mean…. You could have sworn you heard your name…”Joanne”…..but when you look up, no one’s there.

I’ve had several ghost encounters. One just recently. He woke me from my sleep, shouted my name loud enough to get me out of bed. “Joanne,”….

I was up, looked around, nothing, no one there. Was it my dream…what was I dreaming…no, someone is calling me. Someone wants me up.

I walked in to my eight year old son’s room. After all, if a ghost is waking you, it must be important. My son was asleep, I climbed to his top bunk, just to cuddle…. within minutes the earthquake shook us. It wasn’t a big quake, just enough to jerk you awake. My husband shouted, “are you okay…..did you feel that”

“…yeah, we’re okay in here.”

My son stayed asleep, I left his bed and mouthed the words, thank you.

I know there are those who doubt the paranormal explanation for that event…many who would argue I was just dreaming…and maybe I was. But if I believe it was a ghost, than surely it must have been.

We ignore ghosts everyday. A creak in the house, a bang in the basement, a closet door opens for no apparent reason. …. the shadow I just saw in the reflection of my blank television screen.

We tell our selves it was the dog, the cat, the wind, the house shifting.

I offer no explanation as to who these ghosts are or how they got here…are they trapped spirits, souls in limbo, the cursed? I don’t know. Cultures around the world have different theories about ghosts… some believe they are reincarnated souls….Shakespeare liked to write about them, Americans love to see movies about them.

Don’t we all have ghost stories from our childhood, the ones our aunts and grandmothers liked to tell us…..like the time my Auntie Lou saw a ghost, a 14-year-old classmate who died accidentally. His death haunted her dreams…and then there he was standing near her bed one night. After confessing this apparition to her priest, she was told to say several Hail Marys. My sisters and I grew up retelling that story many nights, making us shiver and climb into bed with one another. They are the lore of our childhood.

I believe ghosts come to us when we allow them, alerting us of danger, forecasting bits of information that get us excited about what tomorrow holds….they call and sometimes we listen…..

We choose to interpret what we can’t explain or don’t understand or don’t really want to know….did it just happen, did I see what I think I saw….maybe I see ghosts and you see God or my neighbor hears his late wife or maybe you really believe it s the light playing tricks on your eyes….they are each theories validated in our own belief systems. We take ownership and create our personal philosophies. They guide us through troubling or chaotic times… offering explanations to our extraordinary good luck or misfortune.

Maybe, we just want to believe in magic and mystery.

I believe therefor it must be true. Isn’t that the tenant of all faith……whether it’s in God or Buddha, a guardian angel or the Holy Spirit….why not ghosts ?