July 23, 2008 - Posted by Marge - 1 Comment
It was the floss that did it this time.
Staring at a travel-sized compact of “minty fresh!” floss hanging innocuously from its hook, I felt maudlin all over again. He had been relocated to the other side of the country and all I could think of was the fact that he was looking for a good brand of floss shortly before he left.
It really was the little things that got you.
The other day I was looking for a belt bag for the gym in the luggage department of the same store and I spotted a line of good laptop bags. He needed one of those, too. If he were still living in the area I would instinctively text him about my new find and we would take a look at the laptop bags the next day after he picks me up from the office.
But distance has a way of magnifying little things such as these, giving them greater significance that would otherwise be trivial on an ordinary day. He still gets to come home twice a month, a fact I greedily drink up like a cold drink on a scorching afternoon.
He is the one I have loved the longest—unadulterated, without pretense– and being apart from him is agony. I try to keep in mind that this is only a temporary arrangement, that sacrifice is a necessity for the fulfillment of a dream much greater and encompassing, and sometimes it helps. But other times I can only take it one day at a time without romanticizing a compact of floss.
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Have you watched those movies (The Weatherman) or music videos (Alanis Morissette’s ‘Thank You’) that contain a scene in which a character is standing still in the foreground while everyone in the background in moving fast forward in a blur? That’s how I feel about my work sometimes. Like everyone else is headed somewhere—a promotion, a transfer, changing jobs—while I just remain stationary behind my desk, a pen in one hand, my boss’s calendar in the other for the past 5 years.
I’ve gone through the not-so-unusual myriad of emotions associated with the life of a job—initial trepidation, eventual adaptation, consistency, restlessness, resignation, apathy. On bad days I hated my bed-tempered boss and resented my routine work, found it to be outright meaningless. On better days, I figured myself lucky enough to have a job—a good one at that—in a world of economic recession, political strife and national discord thrown in for good measure.
Rather comically, with the recent slew of period novels on European monarchy that’s been sitting on my nightstand table, I imagine myself to be the post-modern corporate version of a lady-in-waiting living in the King’s Court. Not royalty, but close to one. Sitting atop a tower of grandeur beside the dictator monarch, keeping watch over the rest of the townspeople and land below with a marvelous view, chin held up in a regal air, in all her lonely existence.
July 14, 2008 - Posted by Marge - 1 Comment
A very interesting read by a Melissa Mayntz posted on essortment.com.
This sheds some light on several hauntings I’ve experienced so far. Most are visible hauntings, such as a headless white lady, a priest missing his head appearing in a photograph (why can’t they keep their heads on??), a woman in a black dress, long black hair and barefoot leaning over the campus balcony, a doppelganger impersonating my mom, a hazy black form passing by. I’ve also had sensory hauntings—disembodied voices calling my name, an intense whiff of a recently-departed friend’s cologne emanating in my cube—hearing the toilet seat slam up and down when I’m home alone.
For fledging occultists like me—happy reading! J - Marge
Ghosts are one of society’s most readily accepted paranormal phenomena. More than fifty percent of Americans believe in ghosts, and with one in two adults giving credence to apparitions and other ghostly occurrences, it stands to reason that hauntings are quite common. There are different types of hauntings, however, and each classification can occur in a number of locations.
Haunting Locations: Open Portals
While there is no direct basis for the belief that graveyards, cemeteries, and mausoleums are inherently haunted, many ghost hunters and enthusiasts believe that the intense concentration of spiritual and emotional energy present in such places makes them ideal for regular hauntings. Apparitions, or visible manifestations of ghosts, need incredible amounts of energy to appear, and that energy can be harnessed through emotional residue that may become imprinted on a burial site over time from the large number of emotional gatherings. Spirits may be particularly apt to appear near their own burial sites because it is the last place they physically connected with their loved ones.
Because the emotional energies of families, friends, and spirits coalesce in a single location in a cemetery, it may create a portal for ghosts to pass through and become visible or otherwise felt by passersby. Therefore, while the land itself may not possess the energy necessary to conjure a spirit, the accumulation of energies can result in frequent hauntings. Many living people are susceptible to burial site hauntings because their psyche can more readily accept the presence of spirits in such a place. With the high concentration of spiritual energy and the greater mental acceptance of paranormal activity, cemeteries are very common haunting sites.
Haunting Locations: Relationships Revealed
Many hauntings occur in places where the deceased spent a lot of time, such as a private home or workplace. In some cases, this is because the spirit may not comprehend its death and is simply going about its daily routine. For these hauntings, it is imperative for the spirit to have spent a great deal of time at the location prior to its death.
Hauntings can also occur for specific objects rather than locations. For example, a female spirit may become emotionally linked to the engagement ring from a lost love, and her spirit will haunt that ring. If the ring is moved to a different location, the spirit may simply follow the object and continue the haunting in the new location. Jewelry, clothing, furniture, and other everyday objects can easily become haunted, but like locations, the objects must have held great emotional significance for the deceased. These objects are often donated to museums once the heirs grow weary of the spiritual attachment, making museums frequently haunted locations.
Ghosts can be just as sociable as living people. Spirits often congregate in places where many living and dead people can be found, such as hotels, restaurants, and ballrooms, typically older buildings with long histories of social activity. It is believed that the greater concentration of energy in such locations can attract spirits that may not have otherwise appeared.
Hauntings that revolve around emotional and social attachments are not always visible. Visible manifestations, in fact, are among the rarest type of haunting because of the greater energy necessary to sustain an image. Noises such as footsteps, unexplained echoes, doors opening and closing, whispers, and even distinct words or laughter are the most common non-visible hauntings. Smells, radical temperature changes, and unexplained breezes are other examples of sensory hauntings. These types of manifestations are often overlooked or disregarded in busy social establishments.
Haunting Locations: Violent Impressions
The most well-known types of hauntings involve reenactments of tragic, emotionally charged events such as violent death, murder, fights, and other highly volatile situations. In these instances, the ghosts may not know that they have died, or else the death was so sudden that the spirit feels compelled to reenact the event, seeking closure for a life that ended too abruptly. These spirits are usually young, and the deaths were nearly always traumatic. Battlefields are some of the most common haunting sites, along with prisons, crime scenes, taverns, and other areas where violent accidents are likely to have occurred.
Reenactment hauntings are occasionally found in unlikely places. For example, a Civil War soldier may begin to appear in a building constructed decades after the war. In most of these cases, however, an investigation reveals that the land itself is haunted, and the spirit is manifesting itself because it has been disturbed by the construction. Often, if the building is destroyed, the haunting ceases.
The word haunt originates from the Old Norse heimta, meaning to lead home. Many hauntings are related to ghosts going home to reconnect with treasured possessions, revisit locations they revered in life, or reenact tragic events that prevented them from going home. Spirits are generally benevolent, and as otherworldly observers to their hereafter, we should visit haunted locations with courtesy and respect to allow the spirits to rest in peace.
