I find it ironic that it is Halloween week and the topic “ghosts” is finally being addressed. Before anyone gets disappointed let’s state this in the beginning of the post.  This is not going to be a woo woo or a scary encounter story. Nonetheless I live with ghosts.

The ghosts that greet will greet you in front of our door.

Many years ago I told a friend that I would never live in the South.  I felt that because of the Civil War there were too many ghosts of the past haunting the future.  Some of them impeded progress with the spirit of “it was good in the day” and others propelled progress in the spirit of “let’s move forward”.  Regardless that was too much pressure for this sensitive and highly superstitious writer.

Adventure is about paving your own way on a path that hasn’t been tread.  Right? I wish.  A friend wisely reminded me that just because previous footsteps aren’t seen doesn’t mean they didn’t exist.  Nature has a way of adding a new sheet of paper to the book of life while saying simultaneously that the previous pages aren’t any less significant-it’s just time for a different page. When the ink on the previous pages bleed through-those memories create ghosts.

Thus far in this adventure, the ghosts are far more intimidating than the weather or change in lifestyle.  We live in the house where my husband was raised.  His father established the house. Since then his deceased father, mother, stepfather and sister had enjoyed healthy lives here. So when we moved in, everything and I mean everything had a story that excluded the past 18 years of our life.   One day the memories we (my husband and I) created ceased to exist and the memories of days and people gone by became the topics for the tales to tell.

It probably wouldn’t sting so badly if I wasn’t the one cleaning up after the ghosts. Or, if they could say what they were thinking when they kept thirty jigsaw puzzles in the closet. And in some instances, what is the purpose of this gadget I found in the back of the drawer?

And, I was right about ghosts. They create a lot of pressure. How does one respect the past respectfully while trying to create a future? How long does it take for the stories to include more recent experiences? For that matter how does one go about creating those experiences?

A reminder that life can take you places…if you allow it.

Ghosts are scary, but unlike my preconceived notions that they would try to pull me into their world, I have learned they are scary because they force us to intentionally create something out of our world. If we don’t the metaphorical ink will never touch the paper, and we’ll have left a far too empty page.  So instead of fearing the ghost I have to thank them, but not for too long because there are experiences to be had and memories to be created.