Halloween, Hauntings, and the Death at Yosemite

 

 

Halloween.

I don’t need to tell you that today is Halloween. Most of you already know.

Often that brings an evening that’s often filled with both screeches of delight and horror.

It’s a time when we love to scare ourselves.

Hauntings.

We tell scary stories of ghosts that rise up from graves and boogeymen that hide around corners waiting to jump out and scare us.

I had planned to come here today and share my own ghost stories.

I wanted to share tales about some haunted graveyards that I’ve visited and the ones that I’ve written about (The Necropolis in Glasgow and Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh, which is home to an infamous poltergeist).

And planned I’d delve into the fact that my grandmother was born with a caul over her face. This is so rare that it happens to one in 80,000 births. There are many superstitions surrounding it. The caul “or veil” is often linked to psychic powers and/or the ability to see ghosts. Which she had and could. Though she never worked on developing either. She just took them as they spontaneously happened.

I thought I might share some of her experiences, but I’ll save those for a future date.

My mother just returned from Ft. Wayne, Indiana, where she spent her youth. She drove past and photographed the home in which she had lived. Many of the haunted tales are from that home.

Spirit Guide.

An interesting fact about that home is that my mother had a friend with some level of psychic ability. She told my mother that one of my spirit guides had come with me from that home. My mother said that I was never in that home. The friend was insistent this guide would have followed me from that home. My mother thought that perhaps it had been attached to her and then came over to me. The friend said that was not how it usually worked. Then my mother recalled that I had indeed been in the home. When I was 6 months old, she and my father traveled to Ft. Wayne, just for a day, to see the house once more before my grandparents sold it.

I absolutely believe in things that we cannot see. However, I am a skeptic in believing what most people share unless I explicitly trust them (like my grandmother) or something they said happened or does happen in the future.

While I have no clue how to communicate with this guide or if they are actually even there, her insistence in how they came to be in my life, even in the face of being told that I’d never been in that house leads me to at least consider its validity.

I’ve always supposed that if someone could tell me that name that I’d been told and the description of the guide, then I’d believe their abilities. Which is also why I keep that information held closely.

Do you believe in spirits?

Death at Yosemite.

I have covered the surface of what I planned to share for Halloween, but last night I heard about the tragic deaths at Yosemite National Park.

I was watching some Instagram stories and there on one of my photographer friend’s stories was the news.

And my stomach dropped and I felt sudden grief.

I knew this girl.

This girl with her bright pink hair and radiant smile.

Suddenly it made sense why one of the referrers to my blog that morning had been from her website.

That morning I thought it strange that somebody would have found me from a blog she hadn’t written on in around two years.

Now I understood why.

When I started the blog in 2016, Minaxi was one of the first bloggers that I became friends with. When she moved to a self-hosted blog, I followed her over there. She began her Instagram page along with that newly titled blog and we followed each other there.

Her positivity was infectious.

You felt your spirits lift any time you read her words.

She was all about being authentic, even with the hard stuff. And she had some hard stuff. She also worked hard to spread the word to break the stigmas surrounding mental health and believed strongly in women empowerment.

Slowly, she began to focus more on her Instagram space and I always loved when she showed up in my feed.

She was living life fully.

Exploring the world with the love of her life.

She sent me DM’s (direct messages) of encouragement during my plank challenge. We discussed books during my book challenge and talked about marriage. She introduced me to some travel bloggers on Instagram. She told me that I should pitch my work to travel companies and that my photography was great. It was those little things that meant so much because so often I question my work and the worth of what I’m endeavoring to do.

And her little asides were so meaningful.

And you could tell that she meant everything she said. Her honesty came through in all her actions.

I am so saddened by this tragedy.

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“You know what the issue is with this world? Everyone wants some magical solution to their problem and everyone refuses to believe in magic.” – Alice in Wonderland. 👸🐰⏱ … I,for one am an avid believer of all things magical, mystical and mythical! ✨💫(what else can you expect of a hardcore Harry Potter fan 😉) But I am mostly mocked for living in a fantasyland and often being asked to “grow up”! 🙄 Guess what? I simply refuse to! Instead, I sprinkle my life with fairy dust ✨✨✨as much as I can and choose to chase magic in everyday life. 💖It could be as whimsical as wildflowers 🌻and warm air, or as overwhelming as ocean waves 🌊 and mountain winds, or this breathtaking beauty of the cherry blossoms 🌸🌸🌸with colors bolder than a rainbow 🌈 and brighter than sunshine!☀️ … And a few days back I was lucky to be twirling away 💃under this myriad of cherry blossoms in this amazing city NY, seduced by the sheer spectacle of this magical manifestation of Mother Nature.😍 Wishing you all magical times ahead filled with happiness , good health and a little pixie dust of course 😉 • • • #ladiesgoneglobal #macyslove #girlsborntotravel #sheiswanderful #sheisnotlost #sheexplores #dametraveler #ihavethisthingwithpink #thetravelwomen #femmetravel #ongooglemaps #dametravelerconnection #darlingescapes #wearetravelgirls #cherryblossoms #thediscoverer #nikonloveny #travelinladies #newyork_instagram #passionpassport #womenwhoexplore #newyork_ig #iloveny #brooklynbotanicgarden #citizenfemme #travelawesome #currytraveler #timeoutnewyork

A post shared by TravelCreatives❤️Minaxi+Vishnu (@holidaysandhappilyeverafters) on May 3, 2017 at 11:49am PDT

amy.lyon.smith

Minaxi this photo is breathtaking! Keep spreading the fairy dust and smiles. You make us all believe in magic! 🌸🌸🌸

I said the words above way back then.

And I am sad that I will miss her sprinklings of fairy dust upon the world.

I remember and honor her today.

I’ve chosen to place today’s quote on a photo that filled the sky with light just as she filled my life with light when she’d come along spreading her words of love.

She made me believe in magic.

Her ripples will continue for a long time to come.

Let your light shine!

Amy