Are Ghosts Real?

Happy Halloween! Today's prompt is Are Ghosts Real? It felt like I needed to lean into a spooky theme for today since it's Halloween after all! 

It's funny, on the way to swim lessons earlier this week, Graham told me that ghosts are real! He said, they come out of their graves in the cemetery at night. So you have to stay up all night long, after midnight, and go into a cemetary to see them. It's so funny the stories he comes home with from school. He also has a friend who has him convinced that she has a real witch that lives at her house! Ha, kids are so fun! 

Anyway, back to our topic for today, ghosts! 

As I was sitting down to write, a ghost story popped into my head that I thought would be fun to share. Back in high school, I worked at a restaurant that was in an old log cabin in the gold mining town of Dutch Flat called The Monte Vista Inn. I believe the building is from the late 1800's during the height of the gold rush. It was the best job in high school and I have so many amazing memories there. If you're ever heading up to Tahoe and need a place to stop for dinner, I highly recommend it. I especially love it in the wintertime and at Christmas when it's decked out in holiday decor and the huge stone fireplace is roaring in the waiting room. The office and storage rooms are upstairs and I always hated going up to get more napkins or supplies. I would get chills and an eerie sense anytime I went up there. One day when I got to work, the chef at the time told me a story of how she was the only one in the restaurant doing the prep for that evening, and she heard the back screen door slam. She looked up and towards the bar where the door was and saw a white ghostly figure slowly moving from the door to the back stairs that went up the stairs. I can't remember them all now, but everyone had a story from The Vista. 

While we're on the topic of Dutch Flat, my childhood friend also lived there. Her house was literally built on top of a gold mine. In the downstairs room where they had added a bedroom for her older sister, there was a door that appeared to be a closet, but when you opened it, it just looked into A MINE SHAFT. I still can't really believe that, ha! But anytime I spent the night there, I would always have trouble sleeping and be scared some miner ghost was going to come get me! 

So, what do I really think about ghosts? I don't believe in ghosts in the sense I shared above. In a scary, haunting way. But I do believe our souls don't fully leave and there is something greater in the universe. A book I read that actually helped me wrap my head around death and spirituality is The Light Between Us. It's written by a medium who shares her stories and I found it fascinating. And I do believe that those we've lost are still with us in some way. In a more beautiful way, that makes it feel less scary or lonely when we think about losing the ones we love. 

What do you think? Do you believe in ghosts? 

I can't believe it, the challenge is complete! We made it a full 31 days together of blogging. I so appreciate you reading along. I'll be back tomorrow to recap my experience and share a bit about what I plan moving forward with the blog.