Curious Things

October is the month where curious, spooky events are in the forefront with images of witches, ghosts, and ghoulish things everywhere; and scary movies are a staple during the Halloween season. With this in mind, I’ve been thinking of a few things that happened which make me wonder what mysterious forces are at work around me.

One day I was humming a song as I did chores and decided to turn on the radio. The song that I was humming came on and at the exact spot in it where I was. How did that happen? I would say it was coincidence if it was just the same song, but in the very place in the song that I was humming? That seems a little spooky to me.  There are times when I’m thinking of a friend and in a few hours that friend calls or sends me a text, or a letter arrives in the mail from them. It has happened with a couple of different friends. Do I have ESP? Do they? That’s a curious thing.

Another example of inexplicable occurrences is around the time my mother passed away; my daughter’s school speech therapist and teacher were working with her to create a self- portrait. My daughter is unable to speak, and they asked her to make choices as to hair and eye color, hair length, etc. from a menu of pictures. When they sent the project home, it didn’t look like my daughter at all, it looked like my mother. None of the staff had ever met nor seen a picture of my mother. My daughter has hazel eyes, long brown hair and wears no jewelry at all, ever, and yet her self- portrait has blue eyes, short gray hair and earrings. It hangs in her room where I see it every day and wonder how that happened. It seems a little freaky to me. On the subject of people who are deceased, there is a thought provoking set of incidents involving both of my nieces. One is my oldest brother’s daughter, one my youngest brother’s, born about 6 months apart. When they were about 3 years old, each one, independent of the other knew who my deceased grandfather was the first time they saw his picture. Each pointed to him and said “Papa”, which is what we called him. They had no way of knowing that at such a young age.  Another example of odd events with those who are no longer with us, my father in law passed away on the day after Christmas the same year my youngest was born.  On that night, I was, as usual, the last person to bed. I turned off all the lights including the Christmas tree before retiring. I was the first one up the next morning and the Christmas tree lights were on. No one else was up while I slept. I wonder if that was his way of letting us knows he had stopped by. It was strange, and a little bit spooky to get up to see the tree lit when I knew that I turned it off. I think about that every Christmas.

I think that everyone has things happen that they can’t easily rationalize away as pure happenstance.  There may be unearthly forces at work in each of our lives; or I may have read one too many thrillers mysteries, seen one too many movies and TV shows with supernatural themes.  Of course, there’s always the possibility that I have a fertile imagination.  Anything is possible.