Spirits

I spent most of my formative years in this Pearl, Mississippi house.  It holds so many memories for me both good and bad.   I cannot believe it is being sold.

This house remains one of the most interesting places I have ever lived.   I will always remember lying in bed and listening to the sound of people walk down the halls.  It never scared me; it just was.  I also remember seeing a woman walk down the hallway and hearing voices in rooms where people were not.  It was unnerving at times; but it was always fun living in a haunted house.   I remember when I first heard my mom and grandma mention to me about the spirits.  I had never heard them speak of such things… it actually surprised me; but let me know that It was not just me that experienced it.   The weirdest thing was when things would move.  You couldn’t expect anything to stay in one place, it would inexplicably move to another part of the room or another room in general.  You just never knew what would happen. 

I can’t help but wonder if my mom is now counted among the spirits that reside at 306 Pearl Drive.  She passed away in the living room sleeping in her bed.  She slept in there because she was an amputee and getting around was easier than going into and down the hallway.  

I wonder if she made friends with the other spirits in the house too.  In life, she never met a stranger… I doubt death would stop her. 

A Rose

Love is a lot like a rose.   So beautiful and sweet, and so fragile that it needs to be kept safe by thorns.   Too often we allow our love to be displayed for the world, and soon we are left with just a fragment of the beauty that once was.  Perhaps we should keep our love bound to us and safe from the torment that the world can provide… safe just for our own enjoyment… that is the safe way.     No… Perhaps I am wrong, maybe the best thing to do is to make it able to stand the tests of time, only then will it forever be just as beautiful as it was the day it first sprouted.  

The Wind Done Gone...

Prior to the civil war, and even a bit after the war itself, this was a home.  Hard to believe now, as it could easily be from Athens or Rome if only for the columns, but this is in Port Gibson, Mississippi.   This state was once full of beautiful homes, seemingly right out of Gone With the Wind, but the reality is that it is just that…  gone with the wind.

I took this photo with an actual film using camera many years ago.   It was the first time and currently the last time that I saw these iconic columns rising from the surrounding nothingness.   I was mesmerized at the size, I had until that point seen just photos and the sheer magnitude of the columns made me wonder how beautiful the house once was.

Home

We hold these places to be sacred, for the most part they contain all that is us… our possessions, our photos, and our memories. They are never perfect, they may have cracks, and we may keep the doors locked to keep the bad people or, or us in… as Tim Minchin would put it. But the fact is, it is home.

I often wonder who once lived in homes such as the one shone here. I know someone once found shelter within these collapsing walls, I wonder if they are still around to walk among the ruins of their once sacred place. It is a sad thought, but at the same time there is something beautiful about the circle that is life. What was once someone’s haven is now shelter to the many creatures that roam the forest and need their own place to feel safe.

Inside the Door.

Inside the window.

This abandoned house is located on Airport Road outside Mendenhall, MS.

Peace Be With You...

People so often look outside themselves to seek peace and understanding from others, sometimes though what they really see is actually within them. The beauty about this is that once they discover just how beautiful they truly are, they can finally open themselves up to those around them that love them.

Creole Lifestyle

Louisiana Bayous are not the only places where there are homes In the middle of rural areas on stilts… there are many places in Mississippi that harkens back to the Cajun lifestyle. These homes in Hinds County are within a hundred feet from the Pearl River. They are homes for a group of people that I have personally grown to love for many reasons, one because I am related to them, and that I once also lived in one of the very river homes in this photo. My mother’s family is descended from the Creole people, and apparently that is a part of genetics that lives on in its descendants.

Past Revisited

Very few places can cause such mixed emotions in me as this one photo. No this is not the house I grew up in; no this is not the home of a dear relative. Nothing like that, this home for me was part of a life changing event that transpired over the past summer. I lived in this house from March 2007- September 2007 and I learned a great deal about myself while here. I learned that I am stronger than I ever realized, and I also learned that I can be loved the way I always dreamed… but that that can go away in an instant. Sometimes things are not what they seem, and I know that while this may look like a nice house, believe me just a few months after this photo was taken, it went way downhill…. Sometimes it just takes a while for the true façade to come through.