Spirits, souls and Halloween

Halloween, Festival of Samhain, All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day, All Souls Day…the day we love to dress up as witches, ghosts, devils, etc.  and go trick-or-treating, or partying.  We go through haunted corn mazes, haunted zoos, haunted houses, or even haunted graveyards.  We want to be scared.  We want to scream.  I volunteered at a haunted zoo for several years and i loved scaring people.  Why do people put themselves through this?  Because they are brave for one night.  They are scared of spirits, souls and ghosts but this one night they pretend to be brave, to go to the edge of this world and the next. This is the night it is easiest for spirits to pass through that veil that separates us and venture into our world, apparently.  There are a few folks that i wish would come though and have a visit with me…Grammie if you are listening…drop in for a cup of tea would ya.

According to http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween, halloween was started by the Celtics who would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts and then try to tell each others fortunes!  Have you ever gone to a Physic? a Medium?  or wanted someone to tell you the future?  I have been to a Medium and 2 other of these type of folks.  It was entertaining and the Medium was bang on with his information.  And that freaked me out.  Because i can’t explain how that works.  And that’s why Spirits and Souls freaks most of us out…we can’t figure out how that works.  We live, and then we don’t.  It’s a bit comforting to think that we can go on and be in some other place and communicate with our loved ones someday….but boy will we freak them out…that could be fun!  I know who i am going to haunt!

Hollywood has given Ghosts a bad name though.  They make these awful, terrifying movies (and I can’t name any cause i refuse to watch them) that make us afraid of Ghosts and Goblins and the dark.  I just googled Goblin cause i wanted to know what the heck a Goblin is…it’s a ” monstrous creature from European folklore”  Take Casper though…Casper is sweet, and thoughtful and kind.  And Sixth Sense ghost…that guy came back to do some good.

So it’s 8 pm and I’ve had 6 Ghosts and Goblins at my door.  None scared me,  which i’m glad about because i was alone.   Happy Halloween – hope you are having a brave night.

 

 

 

Camping

Have you ever wondered why people love to go camping?  You pack a few clothes, your tent, a few dishes, a bit of food, and you head out to live in a common place – a field with trees, grass, tables and indoor plumbing if you are lucky –  with a few dozen or a few hundred total strangers for a few days.

You live in a tent, that has no lock on the door, and sleep better than you ever have in your $1000.00 bed that’s at home.  You  get up and cook breakfast – which may be just coffee and cheesies – a few feet away from other tent loving folks.

You wave and bellow good morning.   When you are home, how many times can you remember being out in your yard drinking coffee and yelling good morning to your neighbors, if you even know your neighbors.  And in a campground, with people you do not know, you heartily raise a mug and happily chirp what a beautiful morning it is.

While doing so, you are secretly checking out their tent.  What brand it is, how dry and warm it is and how expensive it is.  Then on the way to the shower building you purposely take a peak at their license plate to see how far they have traveled.  Oh…Ohio…they have traveled a long way!    Wonder what they do for a living, wonder if they are married…wonder if they are on a long vacation or a short one..wonder if they have been here before.

And the sounds of a campground…how happy they are.   The crunch of tires on the narrow roads of the campground, kids laughing, bonfires crackling, guitars playing.

Camping is freedom.  Freedom from work, from routine, from familiar faces, from all your stuff, all you have with you is just the basics to survive a few days.  And it’s non -judgmental!  If you want to sit out in public and drink your coffee in your jammies…that’s cool…cause everyone else is doing it too…if you want to eat cheesies for breakfast..whatever…you are on vacation…eat what you want…if you want to loose site of your kids for a few moments while they bike around the camping neighborhood…awesome…you know they aren’t far and are in the “camping” neighborhood.

Yes, you sleep on an air-mattress or a cot, get up and go out in your pjs to make coffee or run to the washroom for a shower, and you have nothing to entertain you except a crackling fire, a walk around the campground, a trip into the closest town, a chat with your neighbors from far away…it’s all so primitive and so worth it.  I can’t wait until next year.