Arayo visits family graves looking for ghosts |
The conversation was genial, as discussions are when people are going about their early morning rituals. Not an early riser, I fought through cobwebs which had crept in during the night, surrounding my brain, and blanketing my eyes and ears. I slowly noted that it was morning, and listened to my parents quietly visiting in the hall as they began their day.
Then I realized……… My parents haven't begun a day together in nearly 10 years! They are both dead!
I remained calm and somehow realized I still had options, as we always do in life. I could throw off my covers and chase the voices from the house, or I could lay still, allowing myself to drift back to a more innocent time, when my only concerns were getting to class (a block away) by the 8:30 bell, and dreading that my mom might serve peas again for lunch.
"Just relax and enjoy this," I thought, as the voices continued their low exchange.
Emotionally I laid back into the moment, when suddenly, the second big observation reached my awareness. My dead parents are visiting today - and it is Halloween!
And with that, they ceased to exist.
It is Halloween - the first one since both my parents have been gone. Dad believed in an afterlife. After all - the Bible promises you heaven and all that implies. For Dad, that would be a blissful eternity of amazingly dull ham radio conversations, probably logging hours talking with the big guy himself……. "GOD1 this is W0NLQ. The skies are nice and bright today over here - - again. How's it looking, from where you are? W0NLQ over….."
Mom, on the other hand, figured you're dead, you're dead. "Besides," she would say, "Bob and I had an agreement. If he died first he was going to report back if there is an afterlife, and he hasn't told me a thing!"
Bob & Janet Carpenter markers |
Afterlife, ghosts, things that go bump in the night. I want to believe in them. Well, frankly, I do believe, but some people you EXPECT to stick around a while and resort to some playful - or mean spirited hauntings. I would hope that I should do a bit of that when my days on earth or over……. (I've got a few politicians I'd like to visit for a while…….) But, Bob and Janet Carpenter? Naw - they aren't really the type……
But after this morning, I'm beginning to wonder.