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Let me start this blog post by giving you a little background information about myself (& possibly my family). My mother & grandmother are superstitious. From a nearly age, they would often remind me about broken mirrors, opening umbrellas indoors, no whistling, bell-chiming or screaming at night, etc. I grew up believing in some superstitions, while balking at others. As an impressionable (& wannabe rebellious) teenager, my friends & I liked to play with Ouija boards & play childish party games like, calling ghostly images in darkened bathroom mirrors.
Even in those times, I wasn’t quite sure if I truly believed in ghosts or strange entities… One part of me thought it would be cool if I could communicate with spirits & ghosts, possibly help them cross over to the “other side”. Another, much bigger, part of me was extremely hesitant regarding the subject. I was afraid a negative spirit would follow me & never leave me alone, or it would possess me & my head would be spinning around as I crawl all over the walls.
I tried to put this subject out of my mind for many years. This subject scares me a little.
I know a few people who have had unexplainable things happen in their lives, but I have tried to not believe their stories. One of these such persons is an extremely close friend of our family. Another was a girl I met in college who was a friend of my first roommate. Both persons claimed to have experienced very unusual, severe & unexplainable incidents revolving around spirits, ghosts & the like. Our family friend alleged that since her mother’s house was built on a former Civil War battlefield in Virginia, there may have been remnants of the war left behind. As for my college friend, she claimed that there was a small female child ghost haunting her bedroom at her family’s home. She explained to me that since she shared the room with her sister, the ghost gravitated more towards her sister rather than herself.
The most interesting incident was when my sister’s best friend claimed that her son experienced a ghostly sighting at our own family home. This friend & her children were spending the weekend at our house, & she did not mention anything until the night before they left. She seemed very reluctant to mention this incident to us, probably because she didn’t want to freak us out, or have us think she was cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs. To make a long story short, this friend explained to us that her son saw a male apparition in my mom’s bedroom. Since that encounter, he now refuses to enter my mom’s room, & he gets a little scared every time he has to walk past her room. This friend of my sister’s has claimed that her son has experienced ghostly sightings a couple of other times & has freaked out in those incidents as well. She believes her son has a special ability to see beyond what the average eye sees.
I don’t know if this spiritual sighting actually occurred in my home or not. One part of me wants to shout out that this boy is exaggerating his story. Another part of me wants to believe every part of it. Ever since my dad’s sudden & untimely passing, there has been a heavy blanketed feeling weighing down our house. Sometimes, I feel like I can feel my dad’s presence still lingering around the house. Most other times, it’s just business as usual. Now, I have never actually experienced anything otherworldly or supernatural myself, but I’m sure I’ve felt or experienced something, even just the tiniest inkling of a feeling. I really hope & wish it was my dad’s ghost, spirit, apparition, or whatever that my sister’s friend’s son saw that time. I would interpret it as my dad’s spirit lingering around to keep my mom company, protect her, & to watch over her. I can’t say for sure that this has made me a believer in the supernatural & all that, but it gives me a tiny sliver of hope. Until then, cheers.
Today’s song of the day:
My sister (a newly single mother) recently visited our house with her two incredibly amazing children. I’m not saying they’re amazing just to be a doting aunt. These kids truly are incredible. Perhaps it’s because as the years go by, we grow closer and closer in relationship. I absolutely adore my sister’s kids, & they adore me as well.
One time my nephew pulled me aside & told me point blank to my face that he thinks of me as his second mom. True story, bro. However, I’d like to believe that I’m the cooler “mom” because I discipline the kids without yelling at them or scolding them the way my sister does. Granted, she is their actual mother…but the kids & I are tight too.
This past week rushed by in such a blur. My sister brought her kids to our house on their one-week school break. It felt like they were only here for a few short days. We, as a family, took the two kids to explore the downtown of the big City by the Bay. The kids made their first trip to Chinatown to buy traditional-ish costumes for their school performance. Then we took them to eat organic ice cream after a quick lunch. The next few days after that became such a blur I can hardly remember all the events that happened. We took the kids up to the mountains (which were eerily lacking snow). Actually we were in the mountains for two reasons: 1. The kids have never been up in the mountains before & have never truly experienced snow, & 2. My sister had to take care of a real estate project involving our former family vacation home. My sister’s kids were so excited to be up in the mountains & touching snow for the first time…although it was only a small barren patch of icy snow. We stayed at a very comfortable hotel overnight & the kids got to run around in the beautiful lake town full of lush nature.
We celebrated my mom’s (a.k.a. Grandma) birthday up in the mountains, took the kids to play around the creek, & had a fun overnight road trip. The kids were so captivated by the snow & the nature all around us. We had such a great, memorable time renting a mini-van & having lots of good laughs along the way. Alas, the kids were sad to go home. They made their Grandma a cute birthday card, but also drew a sad face on the back of it. When asked why, my nephew replied, “…because we are sad to go home. We want to stay here longer.” My niece, who usually has an I-don’t-really-care attitude even asked, “Why do we have to go home?” as we dropped them off at the airport.
I am so drained, physically, from this past week…I had to force myself to write this week’s blog post. There’s more stuff that happened that I want to write about, but my mind is stuttering right now, so I better sign off before I get more incoherent. Cheers.
Today’s song of the day:
No, I’m not saying that I used to look into crystal balls & cast wicked spells. I wasn’t that intense. I will say, however, that I was once into magic & Astrology.
It started after I went on a school trip to Boston, Massachusetts. A selected group of students from my class were chosen to go on this school trip to learn about Paul Revere, the Boston Tea Party, & other history that shaped our nation. One of the things we were also learning about was the Salem Witch Trials, which interested me as a young teenager.
I was really excited to visit the witch museum in Salem; there was a magic shop right around the corner from the museum. This shop claimed to be a legitimate magic shop complete with potions, authentic Wizard & Witch wardrobe, crystal balls, talismans, & all the herbal ingredients needed to cast actual spells. During our class break time, I spent all of my break browsing around the shop. I was just a kid back then, so I was a little scared to get into casting spells & using potions, but I was still into learning about witchcraft & all that shizz, so I ended up only buying a necklace with a bead on it that’s supposed to ward off negative energy.
After going on that memorable school trip, I started reading up on witchcraft & astrology. For a very short time I was interested in becoming a fortune teller & opening up a little store, but I quickly decided against it because I didn’t want customers constantly harassing me about the winning lottery numbers, or how to cast a love spell on the hot guy at work so they could have an office fling in the copy room after hours. I just wanted to tell people that they would live long, happy, fulfilling lives…not wade through their tales of woe. Look, I’m not some wand-wielding therapist. Anyway, that was my awkward introduction into witchcraft, the occult, & astrology.
Jumping into this mysterious world, I was highly reluctant in telling my friends about my newly found interest. I didn’t want them to think I was going to start wearing all-black clothes, chanting around a pit of fire & worshiping dangerous deities. I kept this side of me hidden for the entire length of time it held my interest. I only began showing my interest in this subject when my friends started asking about reading horoscopes & whether or not anybody believed in them. I chimed in & explained whatever I knew about the topic. They were quite impressed with my new-found knowledge & continued to ask me questions on the subject, which prompted me to reveal that I was self-learning how to read tarot cards & give basic tarot card readings. That quickly piqued my friends’ interest, & one-by-one they all asked me to perform a card reading on them.
I stumbled through learning how to read tarot cards. The pack of cards I bought…from the airport bookstore no less…came with a very confusing yet summarized booklet of instructions. So, I bought a paperback instruction book. I read that book from cover-to-cover & relied on it heavily. It was essentially my “Wikipedia” on the subject. I was successfully able to perform a few casual readings. I didn’t dive into heavy topics like finance, health (i.e. when are you going to die), or legal issues. However, I once was able to read that a friend of mine had 2 sides to himself, like two personalities, to which he revealed reluctantly that he was hiding his clinically diagnosed bi-polar disorder. I think that was about as far as I could go as far as depth & detail. Most of my other readings involved revealing quarrels between two lovers, & other small-time items. I don’t think I was able to part dark clouds in the sky or anything like that.
I eventually turned my attention to magic & casting spells. I went to my local public library & checked out books on the subject. I quickly decided that that subject was not for me. First of all, in order to cast a spell (or make a potion), one would have to procure quite a list of hard to find ingredients, which I found out could become very expensive. I was still only a student with limited monetary means, so that became one obstacle I couldn’t overcome. Secondly, I also researched the negative side of spell casting, & the results freaked me out. A lot. Let’s just say that I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of “an eye for an eye”, or I didn’t want a spell to go wrong & then face the consequences. Hey, I’ve seen the 90s movie “The Craft” (starring Neve Campbell & Skeet Ulrich) a few times, & that movie provided a cautionary tale into what could happen if one became too greedy with power or messed with the wrong spirits.
After all that, I started losing interest in the whole world of the occult & even Astrology. I packed up my tarot cards & books, stored them away in the back of the closet & haven’t thought of them since…well, except for now, since I am writing about it. I recently found my tarot cards after cleaning out the storage closet. I was about to throw them away but have decided to keep them for old times sake. It remains a reminder of an unusual, explorative time in my life. I can’t say that I will dive back into the subject & take up card reading again, but it would be fun to open up the box of cards & look at them again…perhaps with fond memories. We will just have to wait & see. Cheers.
Today’s song of the day:
Rabbits & Foxes 
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