When I started in Saint Augustine working for the ghost tour company, I had a skeptic’s interest in the paranormal. In the few short months I was there, I had experienced so many things and captured so much photographic evidence on a nightly basis, I could no longer deny there was something that existed in a reality separate from the one I knew. Some would call it another dimension, others an alternate reality, and still others would say it was a parallel universe. I wasn’t sure what it was, only that I now knew something outside of the norm I was used to was showing up in my pictures, and somehow I just knew where to aim the camera in order to capture whatever it was in a photo.
Orb outside the keeper’s house, Anastasia Island, FL.
Orb outside upper story dormer window. B&B located in St Augustine, FL
The time came when I could no longer do the ghost tours. I had a family who depended on me and the hours just weren’t the kind of hours I could keep and hope to spend any quality time with my husband or my kids. There was also the fact that although I really did love the work and enjoyed giving the tours, I just wasn’t making the kind of money that could justify the lack of quality family time to me. The job also wasn’t helping to support my family either. I drove 45 minutes there and back. I really was only making whatever tips I received in an evening because the rest of my pay was going into my gas tank. Ultimately the time came that I had to resign. I didn’t want to, but I had to find something that would allow me to contribute to the household and help pay the bills. I gained a lot of knowledge during the short time I was employed in Saint Augustine giving the ghost tours about the paranormal, and for that I will always be grateful. I also think that in a lot of ways that job was the catalyst to the evolution of me as the person I am today and the life I am living today.
When I woke up the next morning, I took a walk around the house while my kids were gone and my husband was at work. The depression I had fallen into after being terminated from my university job was evident everywhere I looked! I wasn’t always a neat, organized person…my parents could tell you that, but after 4 years in the military and living on my own, I had become somewhat of a neat freak. Of course, with 3 children, I had to learn to let some things go and ease up my expectations somewhat regarding the cleanliness of my home. What I saw this day; however, was a bit beyond easing the expectations. Everywhere I looked there was disorder. There was no semblance of order or organization to be seen, from the kids’ bedrooms, to my bedroom, to my kitchen cabinets, to every closet. Things were just thrown and left where they landed. I began to see the mess as an external, visual representation of how I felt about my life. I sat down on the couch and began to contemplate the events that had occurred over the previous months from the time I’d been fired, to working the job in Saint Augustine, to the present. I realized that something had to change. I just didn’t know what.
…to be continued…
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