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.  

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.

The Value of Humanity

Mississippi is a product of a conflicted past. Marked with glory, chivalry, as well as inhuman brutality; the same can be said for the entire southern United States that made up the Slave States and the Confederate States of America. It amazes me to see relics of the old south, the plantation homes, (Such as Rosalie in Natchez, Mississippi in the photo.) the elegance and wealth that was the Old South. However if you look deeper the truth is easily known, no matter how beautiful or elegant it was… it was built on the backs of people that were not considered people. While I believe that dwelling on past horrors is futile, we must not forget what was done; and we must stop it from happening again. Right now Slavery still exists in some parts of the world, either in the open or behind closed doors, we need to all work together and end this. That is the only way to redeem the sins of the past.

http://www.antislavery.org/
http://www.freetheslaves.net/

Do it...

The world is full of unknown adventures waiting to be had, and I am just waiting to get out and have them. Time for my first adventure is approaching fast, and I can hardly contain the excitement… Someday, I hope that people look back and say that they wish they could have seen just a few of the places that I have seen, and perhaps they will actually do it. I do not seek to inspire envy, because there is no reason why life can not be lived, it is meant to be lived. Most people look at life as going through each day as a task… I wake up and go to work, and that is it… No, there is a whole world out there, and if you do not at least try to see it and touch it… there is no point. Me, I want to touch it… and I think I will.

"Do it Now… There is only Now, Right Now” – George Balanchine

Photo: This is my friend Rand’s refrigerator, she has been many places and seen many things… I admire that quality in anyone…

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.