I live a haunted life.
I don’t think I’m alone in this, but this aspect of my life seems to be more prominent as I get older. And this makes sense, since as now a genuinely old person of 70 years, but I’m getting to the point where more of my friends, relatives, mentors, and even adversaries that have passed out of this life to I don’t know where.
Except they seem to be coming back to me more regularly these days. Paul resides on the place on the family altar where his sword is on display. Brother Bill, the gourmet cook, manages to show up every time I go to make something in the kitchen. My father-in-law Bill was a major part of both my and my wife’s life and his delightful attitude comes up regularly. And, of course, Mom and Dad, both of who appear on an almost daily basis and sometimes I find them speaking through my voice when I say something that they would have said complete with their exact words and intonation.
You can see this phenomenon with some other old people where it looks like the ghosts of the past have come back so strong as to crowd out many aspects of the present. My dad, who passed in the late 1980’s seems to have spent much of his last years traveling in the 1930’s when he was a child. And, as I approach the span that he lived, I have tried very much to keep a firm hold on what is going on in The Now, though I find this increasingly difficult as I history moves on without me to some degree. There are aspects of contemporary culture that I simply don’t understand and probably never will, and so I’m being left in the past should I want to be or not.
And then there are the ghosts. They are, for the most part, not that troublesome and sometimes actually helpful - but they show up more often and I’m working toward appreciating what they have to teach me more since they don’t seem to be going away.
In my Celtic culture, today is the day where the ghosts that you carry with you are celebrated - just before the beginning of winter where nature goes to sleep for a number of months. Today is the day that tells you that you have work to do - to acknowledge those who went before and to try to learn what they teach before you yourself become a ghost for someone else.
Happy Halloween, everyone. Remember that tomorrow is All Souls Day.
Much love,
Spriggs