QOTD: Wed. Oct. 8: Anything Haunting You?

[Natalka]

We are all affected by experiences we have had -
decisions, family, relationships, work, etc.

Are there ghosts of things past by which you are haunted?
Have things resurfaced over time?

Have you gone shadow hunting,
exorcized those demons?

(these do not have to be things deep and dark, btw... -
and you can answer generally)

[beckie.c]

A toxic family related relationship... has mostly been exorcised and dealt with since I left home, but every once and a while it tries to kick me in the shins. Luckily, I'm blessed with lots of awesome family that reminds me to dodge

[Lynn49]

Yes. Deep and dark, but they're gone now and have been for many years.
We can be defined by those things which have happened to us, or we can rise above them.
I chose to rise above them.

[Patty Smyth]

I try to ignore them and when they creep back just remind myself I don't want to live in the past.

I do believe in never forgive and never forget but you can do this and let go of the anger that's associated with it, at least I have learned to.

[Natalka]

Mine are not deep and dark...

I can't seem to shake feelings I have from a principal I had once when I was teaching.
He was a mean bully - and not just to me.

I first folded, but with support and courage gained from awesome parents of students I was teaching, and of open-minded school board members, I fought him and won. Also later found out that the Director of Education was behind me as well, but he couldn't tell me at the time.

It's crazy how much I think of him and what an absolute boor he was.
I think it's sad that I can't let it go - it was 1988... I still have revenge fantasies.

------------

My second instance involves a relationship from before I was married.
Here it is, over 26 years later and he still mentions to people that he and I used to date - and it gets back to me - extended family members or friends will let me know that they met him and he asked about me. Honestly there have been times I felt as though he were haunting me... we went on to live very different lives.

He is in a different province, but through our culture people tend to 'know someone who knows someone' - and they talk about their hometowns and if you know so-and-so.
I have not seen him since the year before I got married, and have had no contact.

[wolfwoman]

Actually, there is the spirit of a cat in my home. I can feel him sit beside me. And there was an entity that I used to see go down the hallway into DS's room. But after DS moved out, I never saw it again. I think it is attached to him and followed him when he moved.

[TaraF]

I don't have anything in my past haunting me because I don't believe in that. I believe things happen for a reason and we learn from our experiences. Now, the experiences I've had over the years with spirits. Funtimes. Recently however, we have a TV and DVD player in our bedroom and before I left for treatment I woke up one night at like 3am to the TV turning on by itself and the stations turning. Ok. I get up and the controls are on top of the DVD player so I turn it off and go to bed. The next night the same thing happens. I'm like "seriously, whose here? I want to sleep?" I shut it off and go to bed. At this point I was thinking maybe it's just a short in the TV so maybe we should unplug it when we aren't using it, but knowing how I always have visitors I don't doubt it's someone just saying hello. Well we went out that day and returned home to find the TV is not only on but the controls and everything that was on the dresser (DVD's, my watch, some papers, etc) had been tossed about. I don't mind the visits though. I get along with everyone.

[MortgageQueen]

The past won't change itself no matter how much we stress over it, (I know -so much easier said than done) but the future we can control and live to the fullest.

That goes for many people that have done bad things too. If someone is sincerely sorry for their past, the only way to build a good and productive future is to let go of the past.

[TooCouponCrazy]

Like many others, just toxic people in my life. I try to concentrate on all the wonderful people in my life and push those others to the side in my mind.

[ninna]

There is the spirit of an old man in my house. I feel him sometimes in the fall and winter months and it sends a shiver down my spine. I have never seen the entity but feel the presence here.

BOTH of my children (on separate occasions) have talked about him and described him sitting in the corner of our living room looking sad and crying. They have both described him in the same manner and wearing similar things and appearing in the same place, always between November and December. That's when the presence is strongest.

My oldest saw him when she was 2 years old. She felt very concerned for him and wanted to comfort him. She talked about him for a couple of months and then she stopped mentioning him. She forgot about the whole thing until last year when the conversation about ghosts, (and whether or not I believe in them), came up.

My youngest (who had not even been born when oldest saw him) talked about seeing him for more than a year between age 2 and age 3. She felt frightened by him. It was weird because there's no way she had ever heard her sister discuss him so there is absolutely no chance that she knew her sister had seen the same thing.

Can't tell you how freaky I found it when the youngest mentioned the same darned guy!! I was like, "oh my god. Three of us can't be crazy, right?" It was crazier that she described him EXACTLY the same way.

As for other types of hauntings--all I will say is yes--I am haunted by personal demons. Some are bigger than others. Some are far to personal to share on here so I won't.

I don't hold grudges but I do have regrets.

I also have some things that I can't get out of my mind--like how my mother was in the year before she died and how much she changed in that time from the person she had been. When I think of her, all I can see is how she was in that one year before she died: a shell of the person she had been. My brain won't let it go and when I think of her, the image my brain conjures is the image of her sick and helpless and frightened. I hate that.

[avoncallingu]

I don't have anything in my past haunting me because I don't believe in that. I believe things happen for a reason and we learn from our experiences. Now, the experiences I've had over the years with spirits. Funtimes. Recently however, we have a TV and DVD player in our bedroom and before I left for treatment I woke up one night at like 3am to the TV turning on by itself and the stations turning. Ok. I get up and the controls are on top of the DVD player so I turn it off and go to bed. The next night the same thing happens. I'm like "seriously, whose here? I want to sleep?" I shut it off and go to bed. At this point I was thinking maybe it's just a short in the TV so maybe we should unplug it when we aren't using it, but knowing how I always have visitors I don't doubt it's someone just saying hello. Well we went out that day and returned home to find the TV is not only on but the controls and everything that was on the dresser (DVD's, my watch, some papers, etc) had been tossed about. I don't mind the visits though. I get along with everyone.

Horatio is MAD at you!!! for doing to him what you're doing!

[avoncallingu]

I am haunted by "water" events! floods in basements, water damage in a newly purchased home that caused us LOTS of problems trying to fix it, water heater bursting - also flooding basement (different basement) - now 3 different kinds of water problems with our new home (basement) - being caught up in an undertow in 4 inches of water in the ocean in Miami - fire hydrants bursting in middle of night out on our street - leaky fire hydrant just around the corner causing sidewalk serious damage - there was something else that I just can't think of at the moment.

I figure I must have done something horrible wrt water in a former life - LOL!
And yet I have been on 6 Transatlantic voyages with no incidents. (Was I tempting fate?)

[TudorChick]

I have a secret only my good friends and lovers have known. I have never told my Dad, Mom, etc. I hate that I keep it secret. If I die tomorrow I will regret not telling them. I feel like if I tell my Dad it will make him feel angry and like he failed me. it wasn't his fault. I feel like if I tell my mom she will just be mad at me.