What Do You Do When Your Ghost Story is True?!

I don't recall being afraid of the dark, thinking a monster was under my bed, hearing voices, etc. when I was a kid, but I always did enjoy a good ghost story and was fascinated by all kinds of unconventional things...I suppose I still am--to some extent. I remember one of my junior high birthday slumber parties when a bunch of us girls snuck out and went to the Bellevue Cemetery in the middle of the night. If I remember right, we took my dog, Dixie, as our protection. What were we hoping to find? I have no idea! Ghosts or spirits, I suppose, but what we would've done if we'd found any--again, I have no idea. One of the more forgivable freedoms of childhood is the complete absence of forethought. I miss that!

Ghost stories or not, I remember two off-the-wall things I believed in my younger childhood which are still burned in my memory: 1) I thought I could drift from room to room without walking (basically, I thought I could fly); and 2) I thought I could look at a photograph and see whatever actions were happening which led up to the moment the photo was taken (basically, I thought I saw movies in my pictures). I've since decided I must've dreamed these things, but I've dreamed many things which I've since completely forgotten. These two things are more like memories to me...I know, weird! 

I learned at an early age to be okay with not being like everybody else, and I try to let others be who they are as well. That doesn't make me an enabler and doesn't mean I ignore the elephant in the room if something needs addressing. In fact, I'd say I have a bit of a drive for problem-solving, so if that means illuminating something and looking for ways to solve whatever challenge comes my way, I do try to be loving and logical in my approach. The downside of this is I sometimes have folks complain to me about other folks' behavior, because they know I am more comfortable addressing things head on...if you've ever taken the StrengthsFinder survey, the fact communication is my number one will mean something to you.

Communication being my number one means I'm comfortable sharing many of my life experiences in hopes it might help others...which brings me to three things which happened in our home recently, which I cannot explain--our own 'ghost story' of sorts! 

The first happened when my folks were over after having dinner out with my husband Bret and me. They had come into our house to shoot a happy birthday video for my great niece, Quinn. After we shot the video with my LG3 phone on a tripod, I played it back and the four of us watched it on my small phone screen. Then we decided to watch a recent video I had taken of my father playing clarinet in a fundraising concert at their church. When we were watching this video, the light in our front entryway began flickering like crazy! Now, we've had that light flicker before in the few years we've had my late grandmother's grandfather clock near it, and I've just decided it was Grandma's spirit saying "hello" when I go to wind the clock every week, so I usually say "Hi Grandma" when I open the clock to wind it. Bret has checked the wiring, bulbs, etc. to ensure we didn't have a maintenance problem with this particular light, but everything seemed fine--until my dad's clarinet filled the room. Dad said he thinks Grandma was applauding! That was a few weeks ago and we haven't had any flickering since...

The second unexplained thing happened when I went to look at the posted birthday message we made for Quinn on our big screen computer, and saw LOTS of orbs! Click here and see what you see.

The third other-worldly thing happened a week later, when my husband was out of town and I was sitting on our bed with our three dogs, trying to make a little Vine of each of the dogs to send to Bret in case he was missing them. If you're not familiar with Vine, it's an app which takes six-second videos by pressing your finger on the screen to capture video and lifting your finger to stop. 

My first shot was of Bushido, our black and tan Shiba Inu, who was lying on his side by my legs. His head was down, so I said "Bushido" while I was already capturing video and it ended up being too long, so I deleted my first attempt. The second time I called his name and waited until his head was raising and turning before pressing my finger on the screen to begin shooting while saying "Are you being a good boy?" This Vine of Bushido shows him turning and looking clear past me--like something was behind me--but this wasn't the weirdest part... 

I then turned to Mojo, our black and tan soft-coated Pommeranian, who was already looking at me, so I pressed my Vine screen and said in a lower quieter voice, "good boy". I didn't know until the replay that this is where an EVP shows up, almost sounding like it took some of my energy and voice intonation from when I said "boy" and says something I'm hearing clear as day (because I know what I said and what I didn't say) as a derogatory comment I won't print! Click here to see what you hear. 

The third Vine shot I took was of Toby, our small orange sable triple-coated Pommeranian, who also was already looking my direction. In that shot I say "Hi Papa" because again, this was supposed to be a night-night Vine for my husband.

I'm curious as to whether anyone else hears what I hear in the Mojo clip as so far, no one in my family has, but they do acknowledge hearing something unexplained, and I had just shared the flickering light story and pointed out the orbs the week before. I like to think no one's heard it the same way I did because my family doesn't want to hear such foul language flung at me--especially by disgruntled spirits! To be honest, I had just woken Bushido up twice for a silly Vine video, so he himself could've been thinking such a thought, but a dog-loving spirit who cusses like a sailor at stupid human behavior makes more sense.

That is, it would make more sense to believers, which I guess I have to be now--though I'm not crazy about being put in any category at this point. If you're curious, I was raised Presbyterian, but I do feel we're all on our own spiritual journeys in life, and I acknowledge this would be a major comfort-stretcher for some.

I guess the reason I heard it so clearly is Vine now allows you to cut your shots shorter if you'd like and the way it gives you to do that is it plays whatever shot you're on in the editing tools over and over and over, so you're very familiar with all the sights and sounds of that few seconds of video after a few loops of it goes by. When I first heard this 'glitch', I was going to try to edit it out, but then in that process, it was playing over and over and it dawned on me what I was hearing. Then I was sufficiently freaked out, turned my electronics off and didn't fall asleep until two hours later, around 1 AM! Needless to say, Bret didn't get his night-night video that night. 

In the light of day, I listened again and made the decision not to edit it at all, but to upload it to my Vine account as is. I sent a light-hearted "Spirit Diary II" email with this next week's happenings to my family, and somehow felt better. 

I have to admit I thought it was kind of fun to think we had spirits of family members, pets and/or passed friends hanging out with us at BRIN Cottage, but I need to make the distinction I really don't care to invite any ill-tempered behavior or language--family or not--and the bedrooms and bathrooms really should be off limits for obvious reasons!

I'd love to hear what true ghost stories you might have in the Comments section below. Somehow, it helps to know we're not alone...in our 'we're-not-alone'-ness!

Today's Quote:
"The house ghost is usually a harmless and well-meaning creature. It is put up with as long as possible. It brings good luck to those who live with it."
-- William Butler Yeats, The Celtic Twilight

Choosing Quality of Life--and Embracing Changes for the Better--Rarely Results in Regret

My husband Bret and I were at my folks' house recently to help with some heavy lifting tasks. Naturally, my bodybuilding husband was more help with that than I was! While we were there, I started asking questions about some of the photos of ancestors my mother has framed and on display. The more we were talking, I began to ask about specific people I remembered from my childhood, and my mother started digging out boxes of old photos which have been passed down from generation to generation. It was such fun hearing stories about relatives my folks knew, and even more interesting learning more about some whom I had also been blessed to know.

A recurring element in many of the family stories I've heard over the years has been the recognition of simpler times, far more conservative values and an appreciation of the struggles of those who came before us. When I picked up a picture of my maternal grandmother as a young woman, my mother reminded me that photo had been taken shortly after the first time she had ever gotten her hair cut (and I get the idea this was especially a comfort-stretcher for her father). The drama of women cutting off their long tresses struck me as particularly funny and sad at the same time. It reminded me of Downton Abbey, a PBS series set in the 1920's, when one of the main characters--Lady Mary--was the first at Downton to have her hair bobbed. As someone whose favorite personal hairstyle preference has always been short (even when I've worn it other lengths for variety), I'm happy our society has moved past an insistence on women maintaining long hair!

As we continued to sift through dozens of photos, seeing several people on horses and then others standing by cars which would be considered antiques today, the reality of all the modern conveniences and technological advances created in my folks' and my lifetimes came to mind. They remember childhoods spent sitting by the radio for entertainment, phone numbers with words in them, using outhouses at relatives' homes, paying a nickel to spend Saturday at the movies and lugging around really big cameras. I remember black and white television with three channels you could only change by walking up to the set, record albums you could stack on a player with a needle magnifying every scratch or speck of dust, reel-to-reel tape recorders, Super 8 movie cameras and typewriters. 

To think of life without microwaves, computers, flat screen televisions, cell phones, fax machines and loads of other gadgets upon which we've come to depend is a sad thought indeed. It's a good reminder to appreciate inventors, researchers, scientists, engineers and the like for all life's changes we've come to love. Do you have other fun nostalgic stories and/or favorite inventions you'd hate to live without? Please feel free to share them in the Comments section below and we can all appreciate life's upgrades together!

Today's Quote:

"Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different."

-- C.S. Lewis