I have always encountered spirits. It started when I was as young as I can remember. Some of them worried me, some were known to me, and some didn’t seem to be part of the modern world. A few spirits even became friends of a sort.
One long time visitor is the spirit of a family member that was killed when I was a teen. He didn’t appear to me for a few years, but then I became a young mom. I needed support and there was none. At first, I didn’t think much about my young son watching odd corners of the room. Then one day he got sick, I got worried, and I saw a ghost.
He is a sarcastic, funny, loving ghost. He wears those tan work boots, jeans and a hat. I can’t look right at him and see him but I can see him out of the corner of my eye. I hear him as a thought and he can hear and see everyone.
He has shared my life, from time to time, ever since. I knew when life back home had him concerned because he would disappear and then after things settled down he’d pop back up. He is aware of the world which makes him more of what some people call a spirit.
Another visitor is a little boy I know nothing about. He came with the house I moved into a few years back. I was preparing the house for us and the kids were in one of the bedrooms. I had to pass the stairs to get to them and was heading that way. I glanced on the stairs and kept walking for a step or two. I stopped. I backed up thinking one of the children had snuck onto the stairs which weren’t safety checked yet, so I was going to call them down.
The boy standing on the stairs wasn’t one of mine. He was about 7 or 8 years old and dressed in the ugly stripes that parents seemed to favor in the late Sixties, early Seventies. His blond hair was messy cut but cute. He didn’t say a word. I told him a quick hello, asked him to play nice with the other kids and that he was more then welcome to stay. I have seen him just a handful of times in the 3 years since.
Are all ghosts or spirits good or neutral? Well, my experience says that just like the living, everyone is different. I think they even have different reasons for staying behind, visiting, or causing trouble, even if they don’t understand it themselves.
I had a daughter who loved to sleep in her room until she hit about two. All the sudden she kept telling me that there was a man in her room. He was lost. Her limited words made it hard for me to understand what she was bothered by, so I had her draw a picture. I did some research and found out a few methods for sending ghosts on their way. The way I figured it, it would give her the power and control to feel safe even if it didn’t send the angry man on his way to the after life.
I got some vanilla candles for protection, some sage to cleanse and protect, and a healing stone for my daughter to hold and use. I taught her a quick easy chant that told the man that it was ok to go to heaven and that his family and friends were waiting. It must have worked because she started sleeping in her bed again and she never seemed worried about the man again.
Take each spirit you encounter as you would each person, as an individual. The bigger deal you make of them, the more they become a part of your world. If you are bothered by them, tell them to go home, that they are safe, and that loved ones are waiting.
