Tagged I'm It!

So my fine southern friend, Mrs Mom, down yonder at Oh Horse Feathers has tagged me for a game of Ghosting It Forward in which the rules are:
1) Have a Ghostly Image to pass along.
2) Tag three people on your blog, with links to their blogs. Tell about what great folks they are, or offer to send them a Ghostly Treat.
3) Include a link to Ghosting It Forward in your blog.


Of course, me being who I am and don't always play by the rules, have added my own little twist. My ghostly pictures come with a bit of a story. These are pictures I've taken myself, in which I will explain. I think that if we have a ghostly tale that we should include it along with our pictures, so here it goes....... There are a few very favorite places I've traveled to in my life time. Some that have stuck with me on a very spiritual level. Places that I've connected with and funny enough so have my husband and children. Places where you can feel the history. It's thick and spiritual and you can just about reach out and touch it. And for me it's not frightening, it's more familiar and comforting.


So the first place on my list of Spiritual places I love to visit is New Orleans. I love it to the core. The history, the people, the traditions, the look, the feel, oh and of course the food! This first picture is of the grave of the famous New Orleans Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau. There are many things about New Orleans that I think would surprise people of a more northerly home that perhaps have never visited the area. First it's below sea level and for that reason, a person cannot be buried below ground. A good soaking rain or storm could very well raise the dead in a literal sense and perhaps send you floating down through the French Quarter. Marie Laveau is in St.Louis Cemetery #1. A person who dies is given one year and one day to decompose and then you are pushed to the back and the next person who has passed on is put in your same place to be given the same. There are family graves and also ones they call brick ovens and funny enough they really do look like a wall of brick ovens, more than likely for the common folk who don't have a family grave. I won't really get into the "snaps, crackles, and pops" that can be heard and often time the cement face of the grave can be bowed forward. I'll let you come to your own conclusion. Back to Marie, though. If you look closely on her grave, it is not defaced, but rather an homage payed to her and an ask of blessings from the Queen. The X's are not X's , but a series of V's both right side up and upside down. Again, I'll not get into great detail about her and voodoo rituals, but an interesting woman, to say the least. I love this little city of the dead. A beautiful place and I highly recommend to visit, New Orleans and her ghosties!


This next picture, I took on my little Cannon 35mm while in England. When I snapped this photo, the ghostly image in this doorway was not seen in my lens. A closer look reveals flecks of color as if it had reflected from water, however, there was no water. The sun is clearly up top, more westerly as evidenced by the light shone through the doorway and tiny window. This is The Abbey Rievaulx In North England, county of Yorkshire. I believe it was founded in 1132 and by the 1500's abandoned to ruins. Steve and I sort of stumbled upon this treasure while on our way to Edinburgh. It is a massive abbey ruins, built for monks, massive and it's down in this little snug valley with a tiny village built next to it. Talk about your spiritual thickness. Nothing ever prepared me for this one. We had my sister and Zoe with us for this and none of us really wanted to leave after wandering it for hours. The overwhelming spiritual feelings in this place, it size, it's hiding place, it's history. Unbelievable. Connecting!


So there are just a few of my stories, spiritual in nature and I will now pass this fun onto three others out there!

First, will be to my new friend, Lisa, at Laughing Orca Ranch , somewhere in the New Mexico mountains, who I'm just getting to know and like quite well. Frankly, Lisa, you crack me up. I like your style of writing and we both have a painted mare! Yours very pretty, I might add.

Second, My friend, "J", over in the land of thick spiritual history at White Horse Pilgrim , who has a beautiful flowing style of writing and can't be all that bad, after all, he is a Brit who married an American. ;)

Third, Because she herself is quite spiritual, Victoria at Teachings Of The Horse , who has a way of centering herself and just reading her posts helps to center me.

And I must add a Fourth, Arlene, over at Grey Horse Matters who I've connected with over this past year of blogging and is a wealth of information and I know a good soul.

There are so many others, but I must leave some for the ones I've mentioned to ghost forward and my good friend, my good, good friend in the south land ghosted it forward to many already!