April 18, 2013

Growing up in Haunted Houses



My childhood was spent moving from house to house as my parents struggled to find a home they could afford. This meant changing schools often and friends as well. But the one thing most of these houses had in common were the ghosts and the fact that most of them scared the crap out of me. 

Every house had its own unique ghost. Once we lived on a race track grounds. Our introduction to the ghost of this house was when we moved in. One we were settled all the kids went into my oldest brothers’ room to throw darts. My brother had hung the dart board on a door in his room. Little did the rest of us know that the door let to the attic. As we took turn throwing the darts, the darts in turn flew backwards out of the dart board and toward us. Being kids, we thought this was the coolest thing until we discovered why this might be happening. Apparently a man had hung himself on the stairway of the attic just behind that door. Night after night this lost soul clomped up and down the stairs sending chills up my spine while fear paralyzed me. I would draw my body close, tightening all my muscles and was unable to move. Could I have moved I would have crawled under my bed to hide from this ghost I was sure was going to stop walking up and down the stairs all night and instead turn into my room and get me. Instead I stayed in my bed, eyes the size of dinner plates and my ears working overtime trying to hear if his walking pattern might have changed and he was indeed coming for me. 

I will fill you in on other stories a little at a time as there are so many. For right now I am thrilled that my current house doesn't have stairs and my current ghost does not make me crap my pants. Perhaps it is because I am much older now, had so many experiences or maybe this one is just not that scary. *Happy dance*

April 4, 2013

What is the Limit of Your Attention Span?

I noticed lately I have less and less interest in longer posts whether it is a blog, facebook or e-mail. It seems that I want to get-in and get-out quickly; less truly is more for me right now. I have no tolerance for lengthy verbiage.

Yet I can sit for hours on fb reading hundreds of  little posts from anyone. But let one of those posts break into a sermon and I am gone. The information they want to share could be something I might want, or need to know, but I have a hard time clicking that "continue" button.

There is no doubt that I am missing out, but will I be able to force myself to have a longer attention span? I think it is necessary. (See, some readers have already clicked out of my blog- it has gone on too long) I can still read books and informational web pages so I know I can still do it. But it is a choice. I have to choose to  s l o w  down and pay more attention because I can only expect that as time goes by my attention span will wittle away to nothing- a tweet: 140 characters or less- or worse- a mini tweet (yet to be discovered by anyone but me): 70 characters or less.

Perish the thought. I will be working on increasing my attention span daily. I cannot live in a 70 character or less world. I refuse. How about you?