Wednesday is typically my off day from blogging, so I had plenty of time to consider my answer to my question and what would be the next question. In case you forgot, Tuesday’s question was:

Do you  believe in ghosts?

I think there are always people who are skeptical when it comes to the issue of ghosts and spirits, and I can honestly say that at one point in my life I was one of those people, but I am not anymore. I have met too many people who have experienced things that can’t just be explained away and I have seen a few things that make me feel that way too.  I worked with a professor at Western Connecticut State University, Oscar de los Santos, who is a firm believer. He wrote a book called “Spirits of Texas and New England” that documents some of his first hand experiences and experiences of others he knows. It’s a pretty interesting read and a little spooky if you really get into it. But, like I said, I was never much of a believer. That is until after Sean was born.

When Sean was just a couple of months old and we were living with Michelle’s parents, Michelle and I both noticed something. Whenever he was laying on our bed, he would immediately turn his attention to one particular spot above the bed and smile and giggle and laugh like crazy. Michelle and I could never figure out. We would look at the same spot on the ceiling and didn’t see anything, but it happened every time he was there. After a while, we just kind of got used to him doing it.

We bought our condo when Sean was 4 months old and have lived here ever since. When Sean was about 2, he would play a lot in the hallway here, but particularly right in front of the bathroom door in the hall. He would sit in front of the bathroom door and play and talk. One day he sat down there and came running back down the hall a few minutes later laughing like crazy. He did this a few times and I finally asked him what are you doing? He said the ghost was touching him. I just laughed and chalked it up to kid play and he went on playing, laughing and running.

It wasn’t long after that Michelle and I noticed something on the baby monitor. We would hear Sean in the middle of the night talking. He wasn’t in his crib anymore and was sleeping in the bed. He would be talking and laughing, having a conversation. Michelle went in and asked him what he was doing and he said he was talking to the ghost. He said the ghost would come in and sit on the end of his bed and talk to him. Michelle had asked him to describe the ghost but he was never very specific about what the ghost looked like other than that it was a man. This went on for a few years, with Sean getting occasional visits from the man.

One night, Michelle and I were both sitting in the living room watching tv. Michelle was laying on the couch and I was on the love seat, making my back to the dining room. I looked over at Michelle and couldn’t help but notice that she was looking into the dining room at something. I asked her what she was doing and she said ” turn around.” I looked into the dining room and there the lights were dimming up and down, on and off, like someone was playing with the dimmer switch. We both just looked at each other and I got up and checked the dimmer switch, turned the light on and then off. Everything seemed to be working fine. After a while we went to bed. A few hours later, I woke up hearing something on the baby monitor. I went into Sean’s room to check it out. He had a Playskool toy barbecue set in there and there it was all lit up and sizzling away, making lots of noise. I took the toy and pulled it out of his room so it didn’t wake him up and dragged it into the dining room and made sure I turned it off. I got back into bed and not 5 minutes later, I heard the toy on again in the dining room. I almost didn’t want to go out and get it but I brought myself to do it. There the toy was, all lit up again and working away like someone was playing with it. I grabbed the toy, took the batteries out this time and went to bed. That was the last I heard of the toy.

Sean went on for a few years talking to the ghost. We figured it was just something we would have to learn to live with at home but didn’t figure it would happen other places. When Michelle’s dad went in for gastric bypass surgery, Michelle took Sean to visit him in the hospital. They had a visit with her dad for a while and then left his room. As they were walking down the hall to leave the hospital, Sean pulled closer to Michelle and held on tight to her. Michelle asked him what was wrong. He said ” Mommy, there are lots of ghosts around here, all around us. There’s one right next to you.” Needless to say, Michelle got spooked and they ran out of the place.

He hasn’t mentioned the ghost in many years, and doesn’t even seem to remember much about it at this point. If you ask him about, he has some vague memory of seeing him and will usually just give you a one or two-word answer about it and move on to something else. It intrigues me a great deal and wish he could remember more about it, because I would love to hear it.

After my dad passed away in 2008, I had one more experience. I had gone to bed about 11 and Michelle was up late working on her laptop. I went to bed and fell fast asleep. I had a dream about Dad, which I had not done since he died, but it seemed more than a dream. I was lying in bed, just like I was, and Dad was standing next to the bed right next to me. All he did was smile and put his hand on my shoulder, and then he was gone. I woke up right away. It seemed so real, I could have sworn he was there. I went out into the dining room and Michelle saw me and she could tell right away something was wrong. I told her what had happened and she could tell I was upset by it. It did seem real. It wasn’t long after that my brother Kevin and his wife Julie came over for dinner one night. We were sitting around talking and I mentioned the dream to them. Kevin just looked at me and said ” I had the same exact dream.” He seemed spooked about us having the same dream. I think it was the next day when the phone rang and it was Kevin calling. He told me he had talked to my brother Don and told him about what had happened to us and Don told him he also had the same dream as we did. Kevin said he called our sisters to check and see if any of them had the dream, but none of them had. I think maybe Dad just wanted to get a message to his sons that he was okay. He never said anything but just put his hand on us to let us know he was doing alright now. Well, that’s my theory anyway.

So that’s my experience with ghosts. I do believe in them now, and I have seen a few things around here that makes me think something is here, but I don’t worry about it much. I mean, we have lived here for over 11 years now and nothing has happened so why worry? I think it’s interesting and makes me more aware of things I hear and see around here.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer. For today’s question, it was kind of brought about by something my friend Kim had asked on Facebook the other day. She had asked if there was something you had done that you looked back on and thought that was a really dumb thing to do. I replied to her with a couple of things, but that got me thinking about this:

Do things happen in life by fate or is it all coincidence?

This is kind of broad question, but it does make you think. Is there a reason things happen the way that they do, or is it all just a series of accidents and coincidences? If you’ve ever read Philip Dick’s story “Adjustment Team” or seen the movie “The Adjustment Bureau” this is really the question that they ask. Is everything that happens to us predetermined and fated to happen or is it our own free will that creates incidents and coincidences and that determines our life? Don’t give yourself a headache thinking about this, but consider it and let me know. You can answer on here, or on Facebook or on Twitter. I’ll ask a few people on Twitter as well and see what they say. I’ll post my answer tomorrow.

I didn’t forget about posting the next part of my story; that’s coming up next on my agenda, so you can check back later and see if it’s here. Enjoy the rest of your day and don’t forget to do something creative today!