" that house likes children "

If you just LOVE a ghost story, here's one for YOU....

... a true story...

"To begin with," said the woman , " I lived in an old farm house in New Jersey years ago. It was on a highway, but there were farmer's fields all around it. There were a few houses scattered here and there. It was a bit too far to walk to town, and I didn't have my own car then. But sometimes I spoke to the neighbors who lived close by... the few there were. So I was really pleased when a friend I'd known for most of my life, came to visit me.

It was a sunny day, We were sitting in the kitchen at the table having a nice conversation when suddenly I felt I was falling down something with straight sides all slimy, on some kind of stonework, a musty sort of smell, like mosses. I couldn't get a hold!! A WELL! "

My friend said I gasped and she saw me go white and my eyes got a distant look.
I remember she was very concerned and I heard her say my name; then... ' are you alright? What's happening? '

In a moment I came to, so to speak, shaking. I told her I felt I was falling down a well. I was suddenly very antsy and stood up. I told her, ' I think there's a well under the floor here in the kitchen! '

She asked me if I could sence where it was. I walked gingerly over to front of the stove. Again I felt I was falling down the well. I jumped back trembling.


Winter came and the pipes under the floor froze. For a couple of days I had to get water from the bathroom. Then a warm spell came and I could hear water running in the crawl space under the floor. My husband, at the time, and his brother went to fix the break.

They came up telling me there WAS a cistern under the floor just where I said it was. There was a hole in the side of it and he'd thrown a pebble into it. He counted the time it took to hit water. From that he said it must have gone about 40 feet before it hit water...


From time to time after that I heard the voice of a little girl at the top of the stairs in this old farmhouse, calling out " Maa mee...... MAA mee". Others heard it too a couple of times and I hadn't mentioned it to them. They told me how it sounded... exactly as I had heard it.


[ Even after we moved out the next people who lived there told me about all kinds of things that happened there. I don't recall them saying they heard the voice. There were things like light bulbs burning out and being replaced only to have them glow too brightly at times and burn out again soon after. They had an electrician check it out and there was no reason for it. Eventually that stopped, but other things happened.]

Soon after we'd moved in, this old woman who lived nextdoor, for no reason I could think of, just blurted out that she'd lived there all her life, and that that house liked children. It made no sence to me, so I forgot about it.

After that happened, I mentioned it to her, and she said " I TOLD you ... that house likes children . " She was cryptic like she knew something but wasn't going to tell me. I didn't press her about it. It was creepy the way she smiled and looked me in the eye looked when she said it that time. To be honest, I was more creeped out by her than by the entity there.

The entity never gave me any real trouble... but did make her presence known at other times, too.

Another instance was when my dog was asleep on the floor beside me day when he suddenly got up and began sniffing like he was one trail of a scent. He never did that before or after that. He was an Irish Wolfhound. He was like cat when they're following a piece of string that someone has layed in a wavy pattern around things in a house and is tugging at. He was so frantic, eyes shiny, and so mezmerized that he didn't even seem to hear me telling him to come to me. He even bumped into the wall and the cellar door before suddenly stopping by the entrance to the kitchen, near the cellar door, and looking at me, tongue hanging out, out of breath, puzzled.

Then there was this thing with the front door... I had a young child ... 2 or 3 years old at the time. The house was a very short distance from a very busy highway, with tractor trailers included, and I was concerned about someone coming in the front door, or him opening it, even though it had a deadbolt that I kept locked unless I went to sit on the porch for a bit. One day I heard it click as I was passing by. I tried to turn the deadbolt to open it, but it wouldn't budge. My husband tried it too.

Over a period of time we both would go and try to open it, but it wouldn't budge. I think he got the knob on the deadbolt to move but the door still didn't open. One day less than a week before we moved out, I was passing it again and heard the same click... and the door opened. Perhaps she was looking out for us...

... after all ... the old woman had said ' That house LIKES children.' "




.

... the telling

Holidays always get me thinking about how it USED TO BE ...

As I approach the time when I will become an elder in my family
I guess now I know how my parents, and grandparents, felt
seeing how so much had changed in their lifetimes ...

I wonder how many people
still talk about "the good old days" with their children
or grandchildren
and if the kids care to listen
or have the time to ...

When I was growing up,
the the young people in my family loved hearing the stories
of "how it used to be" ...

They were interesting,
comforting,
inspiring,
often humorous, too!

They were always told in a relaxed manner
( as though they were just telling a story,
which indeed they were ...
not dramatized,
although certain parts were EMPHASIZED )
when there was time to do so
without interruptions...
in the livingroom on a cozy day,
riding for long distances in the car,
one-to-one when one needed some TLC
walking in an area they knew as children ...

It made us realize that our elders were once young as well,
that they are just people who aren't perfect
but have just had more experiences,
how much we can learn from them,
how much happens in the world in the course of a lifetime
and how each one of them was/IS a star in their own right ...

It made us appreciate the good things we have now
and brought to life
things we otherwise would not have experienced
but through their vivid recollections,
told in colorful detail,
spoken from the heart ...

In those days
people had a way of telling things
that had a continuity,
details of their own history
and that of the times,
of people they knew
and places as they had been,
that was like traveling back in time with them ...

I remember walking with my grandmother
one summer evening in the late 1960's
when she asked me to "stroll " down a side street with her
in Greenwich Village

Not far along, we came to an old stable ...

The door was open
there were noises,
so we looked inside
to see a man tending to a horse ...

It amazed me that there was still such a place right there,
just on the other side of the humbbub and goings on
on Bleeker and McDougal Streets ...

We paused and passed a few words with the man,
who told us that this stable,
which was over a hundred years old
had been in his family for generations
and the last stable still in use there
but soon it, too, would be gone ...

We lingered only a short time, but
she spoke to the man almost as if she knew him
which seemed to me was probably because
it reminded her of days gone by...

Walking just a few more steps, she paused
turning to look at the old stone house across the street from it
with it's picket fence
keeping the whole city at bay ...

As I looked at her
I saw a soft smile on her face
as in a far away thought
she told me that she used to visit a friend there in the summers
how this stable belonged to her friend's family
and some her memories of those days
... and of how this area of the city
was all little farms when she was a child
70 years earlier ...

Although I had learned some of the history of Manhatten in school
it had always seemed far away in time
and I had only a remote sence of of personal connection to it ...

Although I played my guitar and sang
in some of the folk clubs there at the time
I'd felt like a visitor in the city...
another folk singer
among many
just passing through ...

Until that night
when I learned
that a part of me had a place there ...

Through the telling of her story
I was made aware of that
which I otherwise would not have known
if the weave of my life had not led me there,
if she had chosen not to join me
if
we had not taken that little walk
that one time ...

In her telling,
her memories were added to my memories
as she was passing them on to my care
as a part of my experience with her on this evening,
became another chapter in hers ...

Holidays bring back many memories
that are a part of our personal history
some of which are passed on
by we who experienced them ...

We, those who shared in them,
and those we pass them on to
are the books upon which these are written ,
many of which are never recorded in any other way
but which are just as important, as meaningful, as real
and as much a part of us
as those things we claim as our own
and fight to protect

while all too often we take for granted

who we AREin the quest

to

BE SOMEBODY
SPECIAL
http://creatingdigitalhistory.wikidot.com/early19thc

... to wish you a happy Easter

I want to wish you a Happy Easter... a time for renewal and new beginnings... I love when the leaves start to show and the flowers begin to bloom again. The cheepers have been singing for a few weeks now, and the birds as well, but just yesterday, the buds on the trees began to burst.... mostly Maple trees where I live. Daffodils and Tulips have sprung up here and there all over the place, and the Forsythia bushes are glowing with bright yellow flowers. It's like a delicate pastel drawing out there now... Willow Trees are really a weed, and messy as heck in the spring.... because they shed a LOT of branches in the fall and winter ( we had two in our yard for years ) but I sure do enjoy looking at the ones across the street, beside the stream, and right now they are just a beautiful, graceful veil of whispy green tendrils, flowing in the breezes.... I remember how, when I was a child, it got cold in November and we had a light snow before Thanksgiving that stayed on the ground and was added to bit by bit, followed by a blizzard or two after the new year, and how it all stayed until the Spring thaw began in March. I loved to be outdoors a lot of the time during the winter, but it was, also, a cozy time to be indoors... But when Spring thaw began, and the streams ran high, the birds began to sing, and the winds blew warm again, it was a magical pagent! The air was so fresh and filled with the scent of green things growing, the sweet mineral scent of mud, and the smell of the fresh water followed by the soul-stirring fragrance of Lilacs and Lily of the Valley. While winter was sparkling white and peacefully quiet and calm, except when a blizzard howled, and the air smelled icy fresh and clean and the frost on the windows held its own kind of magic, Spring was a brilliant, lively, harmonious celebration that all nature joined in. To see the birds returning from the south, being awakened to them in the morning once more, hearing the cheepers singing, and all the critters and creatures that had been hibernating reemerging, the buds bursting and filling the world outside with bright colour and soft hues, and such a sweet array of fragrances, filed me with a joy that goes beyond words. It unfolded over a period of days and weeks. Each day something new was awakening, or being born. When one flower reached its fullness and seemed to vanish overnight, another kind took its place..Butterflies and dragonflies suddenly appeared. Day by day, I watched as baby birds grew and learned to fly, delicate little fawns with spotted backs wandered through the yard with their mothers, polliwogs grew into frogs.... everywhere, by day and by night, it was a celebration of LIFE! Then, almost without notice, June arrived bringing the fragrance of roses that gently permeated the air all day and into the evening.... days became a quiet hum of insects, trickling streams, and the soft rustling of leaves in gentle breezes, accented by a resounding thunderstorm from time to time... Bullfrogs, cheepers and crickets sang all night long, joined from time to time by sound of a train's gentle drumming, somewhere in the distance, entering my room through the open windows, carried by a soothing breeze that came from the woodlands that surrounded our house.... Spring had melded into early summer, and what began so exuberantly with the lengthening of the days, walked steadily, peacefully, onward, into Autumn's harvest time.... before the northern world, once again, went to sleep for a season ...

into December

something I wrote a few months back...

Oh sad, sad wind
how strangely you sing
casting down, as the rain
the tears of all time

Deep is the cold
deep, deep is the darkness
deep is the longing
for this soon to pass

Oh angry wind
you carry so strongly
the voices of fear
the cries of despair

Crashing and banging
rushing past like today does
and there's no way to stop it
til its time is done

But tomorrow
we'll be rolling in sunshine
knee-deep in sweet grass
breathin' with ease

I've heard the forecast
in the space between heartbeats
the way the birds know
when to sing,
when to fly,
where to go....

the FORECAST

THE FORECAST FOR TODAY

and for 6 pm BACK TO WORK ...TONIGHT


11:30 am
Wednesday now
40 something degrees

cloudy
the rain is over
it's quiet

VERY quiet

A cup of COFFEE on the dresser
beside the bed
feet up on my old IVORY box
beneath the chair
on which my laptop rests
beside the bed

remote keyboard on my thighs and knees
electronic mouse beside the cup of COFFEE
the computer screen shows >

THE WEATHER FORECAST

CURRENT:
sleepy but hopeful

NEXT HOUR
gusty with activity

SECOND HOUR
restful but thoughtful

THIRD HOUR
productive/creative

FOURTH HOUR
more of the same

FIFTH HOUR
quietly restful
followed by a brief shower

SIXTH HOUR
gusty with activity

SEVENTH HOUR....
a pop-up flurry of activity
followed by a lull

THE EVENING FORECAST
quiet after 7:30 pm...

How many people
want to come and see
a movie on a Wednesday night?

if you BELIEVE it....

I read recently that if you truly believe you can do something
you can
but it's so easy to doubt
when you've never done a thing before
when it seems you lack the means
when you don't have an example to follow
and when others around you tend to doubt that it's possible
whatever their reasons may be...

If you hear a messege once
65% is forgotten within 24 hours...
and within 3 months
95% is forgotten

If you hear it repeated 9 to 12 times
90 to 95% will be remembered always...

To re-program the mind
see what you desire as being i its completed form
imagine you are living it
experiencing it
doing it

Listen to affirmations,
read them,
or write them down 15 times a day
for 21 days...
It takes 21 days to re-program the mind
with a new concept
to become a Believer
This will be the example you will follow

There are MIRACLES every day
and once they come into being and are accepted
they become fact
and are taken for granted
not only as possible
but as real
and we believe in them

If you want a thing
you cannot look ahead
and allow things of the past
to allow your mind to continue on the path
of what WAS
as being the only reality

that is the same as walking into a wall
repeatedly
instead of learning from the experience
and opting to walk around it
climb over it
or knock it down

In hypnosis
a runner can be told they cannot lift their leg
and they cannot
because they believe the command
from someone else

they have allowed someone else to direct their mind
if they did not
it would not work
but, for the moment
they accept it as fact

If YOU believe you CAN do a thing
or have a thing
you can
if you do not listen to anyone who says otherwise
and do not look to evidence that reinforces
your doubt
until your doubt becomes fact
you can do or have whatever it is you imagine

But from childhood
we are bombarded with evidence of limitations
either spoken
from experience
or observed
and we tend to accept it as fact
for the rest of our lives
to some degree

It is mass hypnosis
and since the majority accept it as fact
they tend to hypnotize others
by presenting their evidence
that is accepted as fact
and those things that are of mass hypnosis
are the most difficult to overcome
because these actually form the world we live in


* This doesn't mean that when we succeed that it is all our own doing, because we are living in THIS world where we are constantly influenced by everything in it, one way or another; and where many people have a hand in everything that effects our lives, for better or for worse, and getting others to see to see our visions, and  desire to assist in bringing them into being, can be either an exercise in futility (in some instances) or a formidable task, but if we, as individuals, don't believe in our visions, then, right from the start, they cannot come into being... so I have written this as a workable reminder to everyone who reads it, including myself, when it seems that something is impossible, and we are growing weary in our quest... BELIEVE IT

oh... RAIN!! SPRING rain!

Tuesday evening
April 19th


I'm sitting here
dabbling with my guitar
leafing through old lyrics
drinking a cup of herbal tea

listening to voices
from the other room
and music on the radio

inspired
comfortable
warm
cozy



Outside ???

It's raining...

running like a river down gutters
splatting on the pavement
knocking on the rooftop
beating on the hard soil

The forecast predicts rain all night long...

RAIN

mud making
flood causing
life deciding

rain

DAMP rain
SOAKING rain
CHILLING rain

SPRING rain

With all that said,
it just makes being in here
enjoying this creative time
all the more pleasant


Who would bother venturing out in it at 8:30 PM
unless they HAD to ???

?!
! ! ! ! !!! ! ! !!! ! ! ! ! ! ? ?
? ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ??
! ?! ! ! ! ! ! ! ??? !! ??
! ! ! ???? ? ? !!! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! !
! ! ! ! ! !!!!! ! ! ??!!! !!! !
! ! ! ! ???? ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ? ! ! ! !! ? !!!
?!!

Me


oh... RAIN! SPRING rain!!!

the river and the river of light

Thursday evening

April 14th around 7:30 pm ...

... down by the Hudson River

    ...  and the River of Light______

                                                  ... something gentle this way flows ...

RiverLightRider