Things that Go "Woof" in the Night

My house is haunted -- I've told you that before. We hear sounds, bumps, a voice and sometimes footsteps. It's the footsteps that are the creepiest.

Some of these sounds have been confirmed by house guests -- and usually the most skeptical ones, like my father.

"Did you come downstairs last night?" my Dad asked on one visit.

"Nope. Why?"

"I heard someone walk down the hall and then I saw someone standing in the doorway."

Wasn't any living soul in the house who did that.

A few weeks ago I thought I saw Ranger, our dog who died two months ago. I was walking down the hall to the kitchen early one morning and she passed my going the other way. When my mind caught up with my eyes, I turned around and, of course, nothing.

Now, I was groggy, just waking up and the house was dark. It could have just been shadows and a sleep addled mind. Right?

Last night -- or early this morning, rather -- I was awoken by the usual night sounds, some random thumps and bumps from the second floor. I was just about back to sleep when Ranger barked.

"What is Ranger barking at" I thought as I came back to a more alert stage of consciousness. Oh, I then realized. Must have just been a dream. Right?

But wait. There's more.

We have a white noise maker in the bedroom, to shut out street and, well, other sounds. It's one of those devices that can make sounds like waves crashing on a beach, or a rain storm. Last night it was set on waves on a beach. Shortly after I heard Ranger bark I began to hear a faint voice on the beach..."help me..." Repeated over and over. I'd never heard that before.

Now, I realize I'm quickly slipping into parody peril here...with thoughts of the Vincent Price version of The Fly and the little voice going "Help me..." This was more of an alto voice...soft, faint, as if carried by the wind.

I tried to ignore it, thinking it was just some trick of my spooked-out mind. It wouldn't go away. Finally, I switched the thing to sound like a rainstorm. No voices there.

So friends, I'm either losing it -- seeing things and hearing voices -- or there is more to life and death than we know. I'm not sure which I choose to believe. And despite the creepy nature of these things, I don't ever feel threatened (if the little voice in the white noise maker had been saying "get out" that would be a different story).

It's just the occasional nights of lost sleep that I mind.

Thriller

I am reminded I live in a, well, shall we say, "spiritual" house.

I have written about this before.

This morning, as I sit at my desk, I hear a "click" and turn around to see that the stereo has turned itself on. This has happened before.

But a few weeks ago, the morning I was leaving for Vegas, I was in the kitchen (where most instances have happened, and felt a stir of air as if someone had rushed into the room, and I heard footsteps and a voice that seemed to be greeting me. I turned around to say good morning to the LTR, only to find no one there. So sure was I that he had come downstairs and bounding into the kitchen that I checked the bathroom next to the kitchen and the dinning room as well.

Nothing.

With the hair standing on the back of my neck, I continued making my cup of coffee.

Spooky

I've mentioned before there are strange occurrences in my house. We have heard a woman laughing and singing, we've heard (as have guests) footsteps down the hall when no one is there. The dogs sometimes stare a point in the wall and one time one dog moved her head from side to side as though watching someone (or something) walk across the room.

And, a few times, the stereo has turned itself on (I swear to you I'm not making this up).

Another incident just happened. My office is next to my son's room, where his toys are. One of them is a toy backhoe that works...you can pull levers and activate its treads and move the lift up and down. The levers are like light switches that have to be physically flipped to activate. It's been sitting quietly in his room since his last visit here, in November.

I'm sitting here working, and all of a sudden I hear the toy backhoe turn on, it's treads moving. It's loud, so it scared the crap out of me. My first thought was the dog somehow bumped against it. But when I entered the room, no dog.

I flipped the switch to turn it off.

Creepy.

Explanations?

More on Faith

During my grandmother's funeral the pastor made the statements you would expect about life after death and being united with departed loved ones in heaven. As I've noted before, I tend to think this is a convenient conceit thought up by humans as preferable to oblivion.

But I don't know. And I want to know more. During the ride back to DC from the funeral, my cousin, who is getting her graduate degree in theology at American University as she prepares to be a minister, shared a book summarizing the world's three major religions.

During Christmas I read a book by Daniel Helminiak, "What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality." During the course of reading that book I pulled out a bible and re-read parts I had long forgotten.

Two digressions:

1) I live in a haunted house. Meaning -- both the LTR and I (and houseguests) have experienced phenomena that can't be explained, like the sound of a woman's voice, footsteps on the floor when no one is there, strange behavior by the dogs acting as if another was present, and, for two houseguests, an apparition. I don't know what to make of all this, but I have heard things in this house that I can't explain. I have therefore witnessed phenomena that could support claims of an afterlife.

2) This has been a tough year for me and I'm lately struggling with debilitating anxiety. Starting my own business was in so many ways freeing but it also put enormous pressure on me. There is no steady paycheck and success or failure is 100 percent my responsibility. That pressure, coupled with my tendency for self-doubt, has sometimes created periods where I am so anxious I can do nothing. I started taking an anxiety medication and it is helping me cope, but it doesn't erase the nagging questions in my mind about whether I am up to the task at hand and able enough to be successful.

With that in mind, the other day I was walking the dogs and a garbage truck went by. On the tailgate was painted: Jerimiah 29:11. I focused on it, wondering what the significance was to that particular verse and thought I should look it up when I got home. Of course, I forgot.

Then, this morning, I was surfing the web, and happened over to a blog called Straight Not Narrow.

I read through a few posts then came across one focused on .....Jerimiah 29:11.

'For I know the plans that I have for you,'' declares the Lord, ''Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you HOPE and a future. Then you will call upon Me and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and FIND Me when you seek Me with ALL of your heart.''

This verse seemed oddly relevant to what is happening in my life and my inner mind at the moment that I couldn't believe that I had randomly come across it twice in as many days. Coincidence? I don't know. Or is it like a horoscope where you can read whatever meaning you wish in the prediction. I don't know.

But it sure makes me wonder.