Among the Ghosts of Avenel

Saturday was an interesting day in many ways. Most interesting to me was "Rainbow Rising's" first public appearance, which was as much fun as baby Prince William's first peek at the world, but much more intriguing. My new baby made its debut amid the tall oaks, magnolias and broad green lawns of Avenel which is an old antebellum home,(circa 1838)in Bedford, Virginia. Before and during the Civil War it was the hub of social gatherings, hunts, and a stopping off place for guests like General Lee on his trips around he Commonwealth. On Saturday, it was the occasion of the Seven Hills Paranormal Society's Annual Conference. And sitting there surrounded by new books, old fireplaces and tall ceilings, I wondered if the legendary ghosts of Avenel would show themselves. The tales of "The White Lady" who wanders the main hall, glimpses of her through windows when no one's there, and sightings of a young girl in a high collar, had my senses on high alert. Once, many years ago, having lunch at Avenel on a Thursday afternoon, I had been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a woman wandering through the dining room. At first I felt her standing close to the table I shared with six other people. It felt like a flow of almost tangible energy at the back of my neck, and when I turned around, I had the distinct impression of a woman in period dress, charming, elegant and mingling with her guests. "That would be Miss Lettie," one of the caretakers of Avenel told us. How absolutely fabulous! On Saturday though, as I opened all channels and invited their spirits in for a chat, I knew it was a long shot; and although I hoped that they would come in, I wouldn't have blamed them if they'd stayed hidden for the day. The place was teeming with Ghost Busters, audio and camera equipment and tables full of wires and switches. I think if I had been one of them I would have been watching from the eaves, wondering when all these people would go home. I didn't see any sign of them. No wispy drifts of organdie, no veils, no drifts of rose water anywhere. Perhaps someone else did, but nobody I asked had seen anything either. What I did notice was that the energy in the house felt 'scattered'. Nervous almost. And it made me wonder if ghost hunters, with good intentions for all I know, disturb the unseen residents as they track them down looking for sightings. What do you think. What must the Ghosts of Avenel think about all the sophisticated machinery plugged into their home? Perhaps they're fascinated. Perhaps they're pushing buttons seeing how things work. I heard one of the hunters getting more and more frustrated trying to get his Power Point presentation to work. . . helllloooo . . . is their a ghost I the house? Happy Spring everyone :)

Resurrection, New Life, New hope - New World.

Today, I published RAINBOW RISING. The True Story of Life Before Life, Life on Earth and the Afterlife. All through the chaos of living on Earth, I have been aware that there's so much more to our human existence that we can possibly imagine, and much more to our humanity than DNA. I knew it best when I was a child; and I knew it through the growing years, through the school years and the years of raising a family. There was little time to stop and think deeply about all of this then, but throughout those years I kept catching glimpses of a time and place I knew before I was born. "It was New Year's Eve. There was a party that night and Mama's dress was covered in sequins. Some of the party hats were black and glittery with silver ribbons; some were pink and green and, red and blue, and they all sparkled with that silvery light. The glittery stuff made me yearn for something, but I didn't know what . . .It seemed to me that in that other time and place I could sometimes remember, the very air shimmered and glittered. It made a singing sound too. Sometimes even the thought of all that shiny stuff made me lonely..." How strange it is that we never really snap that bond with a timeless place we can almost never remember. The other Side. But how do you snap that bond with the spirit that is you? A spirit that was you yesterday, is you today and will be you tomorrow and forever, existing throughout time and many dimensions. Eventually, I began to think hard about 'awareness' and became acutely aware that I am an immortal being. Seriously. A being here for all time. An eternal spirit. Rainbow Rising follows in the footsteps of that Awareness, when things in the ESP department really started to POP! I hope you'll love the book. It's written for you, my friends and family and for everyone who ever wondered, "Where did we come from? (Forget the stork) what are we doing here, and where are we going?" I've taken you on a fun trip with spirits I've met over the years, to places they've lived in with me, and without me, and through the doorways my own spirit held open for me and encouraged me to explore way beyond the bonds of earth. Tomorrow, in the Christian tradition, it is Easter Day: a time of the resurrection of the spirit in all of us. A time of renewal, even as the earth renews its promise of new life and sunny days ahead. Whatever your faith may be, I wish for you a time of renewal, new hope, peace on earth, and love for one another. Oh yes! And Happy Reading! I hope this is a beautiful weekend wherever you are. In the Christian tradition, this is Easter

Spirit Horse

Dreams are interesting, aren't they? What are they ... figments of imagination picked up by vagrant winds that drift through our unconsciousness late at night or early morning? Golden moments that light unknown crevices of our brains? Projections of our thoughts? Or do they foretell and sometimes forewarn us of upcoming events? I think they may be all of the above and much more besides. Two or three nights ago I had one of those short, but very clear dreams. I appeared to be nothing more than an observer - I couldn't see myself in the dream but I knew I was there watching the scene unfold. Just the spirit me was there; taking a little trip outside of my sleeping body. The dream scene was rural and I seemed to be standing in the entranceway of a horse barn I had never seen before. I could see a shaft of light pouring through the opening, lighting the hay scraps on the earthen floor, beaming off the wood beams of a stall. And standing in front of the stall was a white horse. He was unbridled, unshod and free. Soft light, like misty early morning sunshine, surrounded the animal giving it an almost luminous quality. It's mane was long and untangled, it's tail swished the air, its head was lowered, its ears twitching. Light bathed the strong flanks. Peace filled the space around it. And then the dream was gone. I've been wondering about this dream. It didn't come from any experience I've ever had. I haven't been around that many horses in my life, and I've never seen one like this. But I'm not totally ignorant of them. Over the course of my like I've had friends who have horse farms or maybe just one or two horses, and I've enjoyed visiting them. I've stroked horses, put my cheek beside theirs and listened to them speak, maybe even rode one of them once, but never formed any particular relationship with any of them. So who was this beautiful horse in my dream? I couldn't tell if it was male or female. Maybe it was neither. My instincts tell me it was a Spirit Horse. In Native American lore they are very often healers, prophets and animals that come into our lives for some reason. A reason we can't fathom at the time. All I know is that it was magnificent, a light being filled with peace. It was totally free of constraint, unbridled, vibrantly strong and full of energy. Ready to run free ... from here to eternity. How incredibly lovely. Whoever it is, I'm glad it came into my dream.

Go Snow!

There are two ways to take this: Either 'Go Snow, snow your little heart out, Have fun!' Or: Leave! We've had enough already! The Blue Jay skidded in to land on the patio table this morning and found himself up to his ears in snow. The Sparrows can't be found, and the reason I know there are Chicadees pecking at the seed is that every so often I see a flurry of snowy and a little black cap. The Canada Geese stopped by on their way back North and they're sitting out there on a sandbar looking like ice cream cones saying, "Seriously?" This is The South y'all! What's going on? And my ghost friends have melted into the fog. Not a single see-through person to be found. We have Snow geese why not Snow Ghosts? (Okay, sorry, my brain has melted into the fog too apparently.) I wanted to pen something inspiring but inspiration has flown the coop. Even the house ghost I wrote to you about had a couple of weeks ago has left. I could tell you about the Civil War ghost I found at an old confederate hospital just outside Charlottesville who asked for a ride back to Pennsylvania. Or the W.W.2 ghost that lived in an apartment in New York City - he went down with a submarine. Strangest thing that. When he popped in I could actually feel water rising around my legs. Or there was the Scottish miner in Grand Lake Colorado - cheeky fellow. And a big husky guy who was travelling with a wagon train, taking his family out west. They were trying to get through the mountains before winter set in. Or the children dancing in an old house in Williamsburg ... So many interesting folk. And you will meet them - as soon as the print copy of Rainbow Rising is released. In the meantime, as I wait to hear from the publisher, I'm working on Book 3. Have you ever met a baby before it was born? Or listened to a child tell you where she came from? Before this earth, in that time Before. Fun! It's writing well, another non-fiction, and if you'd like to include your own experience in it, it's about young children, and also people who are leaving our earth - who see and know so much more then we do. I would love to hear it. Just email me at giniabrock@aol.com For now, our dusting of snow has turned into four inches and still snowing. I hope the sun is shining where you are. Soak up a little for me. And send our big star to Virginia.

A Spirit to Show the way

Last Thursday I visited an old lady friend who's spending her last days in an extended care facility. (The nice name for a Nursing Home, which strikes fear into the hearts of the bravest people I know.) She's very old - well into her nineties - but she still reads and gets around shakily in a walker. Her mind when she's clear is very clear. Her innate intelligence is intact, only clouded sometimes by physical old age. But there's something else going on. Now that the strong physical senses of sight, hearing, etc. are weakening, the spiritual sixth sense is able to break through, stepping forward, taking the lead, and I believe, leading her to the next place. All last week, she spoke with visitors about a beautiful,shining hospital, a lovely place with caring people and a doctor she loved. She asked me when I visited, if I would take her there. I asked her where it was and she said, "In Washington, and I want you to get me there!" Washington was her lifelong home. It's possible she's remembering a long ago hospital stay where she had a good experience. But she's painting it in out-of-this-world adjectives of beauty and love. She can't seem to find enough words to properly describe this place. I heard that while she was speaking to one of doctors, she confided to him that not only was she in this gorgeous place, but her husband, himself a doctor , was on staff there, taking care of her.(He was a doctor before he died several years ago.) So where is she? I believe she's in between planes, getting ready to transition. Is it possible that she's being guided by her spirit, being shown a place of beauty, in familiar surrounds to make her feel at home; to make her reach out to that place? I think so. People who have crossed over into that spirit world tell us that it's very similar to earth only much, much better. Is this what my old lady friend is being given glimpses of? So often we hear stories of people who are dying, suddenly breaking into smiles, reaching out, mentioning names of people who are long gone - Isn't it a lovely thought that there are people waiting for our ferry to land ... and a spirit to show the way. Believe.

Things that go Clatter ... Clatter

Okay, everyone - Ghost alert. Just before I went to bed a couple of nights ago, I looked out of the kitchen window on to my walkway, and noticed that one of the solar lights was blinking on and off. Of course it was - I'd be blinking on and off in this cold too. So I went to bed, tucked myself in with a book and shortly thereafter turned the light off. I lay there, I'd be asleep soon. I closed my eyes then popped them wide open wondering if I shut the fireplace doors... Better check. No. Of course I did. But maybe I didn't ... Not wanting to wake up in a cloud of smoke at 2:00a.m. so up I got , padded through to the living room - and closed the fire place doors. But wait - as I leaned forward to close them, the television blared on. Seriously? It was off. Firmly turned off when I went to bed. The remote was on the coffee table six feet behind me. Hellllooo? The announcers were talking loudly about the missing Malaysian plane. I was the first inkling I had that there was a possible disaster looming in the South China Sea. So I watched for about a half hour and went back to bed. I climbed in, turned the light off and closed my eyes. Then, clatter, clatter, clatter, bump, bump!! What th' ... I sat up, jumped up, and walked down the hall to find the cause. My printer light was on and the machine spluttered once as I stood there in the doorway - and was quiet. It was plugged into the wall - but it wasn't plugged into the computer so no one gave it the signal to clatter ... If I was an electrical engineer I'd probably figure this out perfectly rationally. But I'm not. So, to my way of thinking, even if there were three perfectly rational reasons for all this .. they happened. 1,2,3... Three signs that someone out there wants to chat. And they're fooling with my electronics. This is something they like to do. I think spirits can ride electrical energy into our third dimension from wherever they are. It's a lot easier for them to negotiate than our murky, swampy, heavy earth dimension. They frequently use electricity as a conduit. I'll keep you posted. I'm not sure who it is yet, but think there's a ghost in my house. And keep an eye out for lights blinking on and off, music playing unexpectedly, or a telephone ringing unaccountably. You never know. Someone may be trying to reach you. Probably someone you love. See you soon!

The Owls and the Pussy Cat

My poor cat's nerves are shot. Here's why: About a year ago a young female cardinal took a shine to its reflection in my dining room windows, and has been trying to peck its way in to make friends with the stranger for twelve solid months!! While, I love these guys - especially the boy cardinals with their scarlet plumage - this is going over the top and driving me up the wall. Why won't it stop? I'm beginning to think its suffering from shaken bird syndrome - it's brain is scrambled from all the head banging. It's particularly annoying because every so often (ten times a day) it'll throw in a 'rat-a-tat-tat that makes me think there's someone at the door. Miss Kitty viewed this drama being played out from one of the window sills, fascinated by all the thumping, and dreaming of little cardinal drumsticks. For a while she was mesmerized but about six months into this she got bored and decided that the moths that fly around the outside lamps at night are more fun, and switched her viewing site. I've tried everything I can think of to stop this nonsense including a big wooden bird strategically placed, a decorative scare crow perched either inside the window or, more boldly outside in a nearby shrub. The bird is fine with that ... I put large pictures of full face friends and family in the window. It found another window. Then just recently a handsome, bright red male showed up and I thought, "This'll do the trick!" She'll soon be sitting on eggs. Not a chance - the guy stayed about a day, watched the loony tunes and made a break for it. Then a bird shrink showed up. "Make some cut-out owls and put them in the window!" He advised. Good idea! So, I got to work with construction paper, scissors and markers and after several hours and a full waste paper basket I had two passable creatures that look like hybrid owl/cat/bats. Miss Kitty blinked and then stared at me with disdain as I taped them up on the windows. And went back to washing her face. The bird bought it!! Yes she did! She stayed away for an entire day. And back she came at 6:00 a.m. the next morning. What we need, I decided was sound effects. So at about mid-morning I cracked the door open, cupped my hands around my mouth and made owl noises. Twooot twooooo! Repeat. Twoot Twooo. The head banging stopped. This was working! Buoyed by success, I hooted again - and then again just to let it know this was one bad owl. No bird. There was a scuffle behind me and I turned away from the door to see my cat flattened on her tummy on the floor, ears pressed back against her skull and her eyes bulging. When I opened my mouth to say something, she slit her eyes, hissed, spun on her heels and fled down the hall to my bedroom. What on earth ... She's been there for two days. The bird's gone. But the cat's freaked out and thinks I'm part of the hybrid thing, and what's more, I can speak owl. That must have been a really good owl sound! Who knew ... I wonder what I said. Call if you need an owl impersonator. (But give the cat an advance dose of Benedryl.) Miss Kitty finally emerged when I opened a can of tuna for lunch. Woot Woot!

March On!

Hi Everyone, I've missed you. The blog has suffered due to an extreme push to get Rainbow Risingout in print. This, I've discovered, is harder than it looks. When I first decided to try publishing on my own instead of going the traditional publishing route, I asked for advice and listened to a lot of sages who had published successfully and soon I was riding high on things like, 'It's a snap!' 'No problem!' 'Follow the instructions - easy as pie.' And the one I really liked, 'You'll have your book up and running like clockwork in a couple of days' YESSSS! Not so fast. It's about three months since I started down this road. I must have really irritated the computer gods. Which doesn't surprise me. I don't speak their language for one thing and you cannot get along in a foreign country if you don't have a rudimentary grasp of the language. We know that. And forget 'RUDIMENTARY' in France. I you spoke it with the same fluency as Racine or Voltaire, or Napoleon for than matter - they still wouldn't understand you. However - I digress. What pray, is a hash tag? Smash Mouth (or is that a punk rock group?)Doesn't matter - no comprendez! So, I took my dilemma to a bunch of fellow writers who had gone this route, and got a variety of well-developed answers from well-developed writers who are as right-brained as I am - all of us trying to be techies! Not only did I get a variety of answers, we all had a variety of different computers which didn't agree with each other. What worked on one was smartly rejected by another. My poor computer which has served me faithfully in composing three books finely snapped under the strain. It's a snap! The mother board went up in a puff of smoke. Huge problem. So then I had to get the new computer up and running like clockwork. This isn't going to happen in a thousand years!! Whole new set of temprementalities embedded this baby. And last week it became so stressed out and infected with virus's and unmentionables, all of them according to my computer fixer, multiplying like rabbits - Trojans?? I thought they were supposed to stop that kind of thing ... but no - in computerville they spread the multiplying diseases like with an intensity never seen before. But as you can see, I'm using the new computer, typing very gently and speaking encouraging words to it as we go. I hope it learns my language very quickly so I'm doing everything I can not to aggravate it. Rainbow Rising is going through the proofing stage and if all proves to be well and not in violation of anyone's codes etc... I will be very happy to be able to present you with this new book - very soon. In the meantime, Miss Kitty has been under my bed for two days - a complete wreck. Her nerves are shot. More on that and the owls tomorrow. Happy March, everyone. I'll see you soon.

RAINBOW RISING

There's a new book on the block! Available today on Kindle and all its apps and be soon to be in printed book form Introducing with love, RAINBOW RISING! The True Story of Life Before Life, Life on Earth and the Afterlife.It's finally here. My first attempt at e-publishing was not without it's ups and downs, I can tell you, in fact the birth pangs were mighty, but here we are! Alive and well, a bonny, bouncing book I've filled with the adventures of a lifetime that come from the past, the present and way into the future. In Rainbow Rising, I've embarked on a journey of exploration looking for answers to the mysteries of living and dying, both for myself and for all of you. Where have we been, and where do we go from here? All last year, as I took my first book By Morning's Light from town to town, into the mountains and to the shore, I listened to your questions, and in the new book I have answered many of them, mostly through my own experiences. Travel with me, as step by step, we'll go on on a guided tour into the heart of ESP and follow the 6th Sense to its source to find out who we really are. The book is light, funny, serious, mystical and adventurous. Just the way a journey should be. A few of the characters you met in Morning's Light have popped in alongside many you haven't met yet. And the Spirits - Oh my! They popped in from the mountains of Colorado, the small towns of Virginia and the high plains of South Africa. They found me in the Zambezi River Valley, on the equator and in the beautiful Seychelles where I met the man who would introduce me to America and it's cache of spectacular ghosts. I love them all and I hope you do too. So be my guest. And if you enjoy the trip, please write a review for me at Amazon.com Have fun, always wonder, always be amazed. Believe.

Joy to The World

This is for everyone - no matter what you were raised to believe, no matter what you believe now, or even if you believe nothing at all because, seeing is believing, By Golly! What is it about Christmas that lightens all our different worlds and perspectives? For some it's religious, for some it's the fun of giving and receiving mounds of presents, for others it's feeling the excitement of the crowds in malls decked with tinsel and colored lights - hustle and bustle. The expectation on Christmas Eve is magical. The carols are lovely and the candlelit Christmas dinners - so fine. As I said, this is for everyone, Christian, Jewish and Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist, those whose beliefs lie in the Earth, the Sky, Fire and Water ... who love the feel of Christmas who decorate Christmas trees and hang colored lights, whose children open gifts... I wonder why we all love this Holiday? Could it be that the message of Christmas is Peace? We're all still working on that, but the message is clear as a winter's night with a starlit sky ...the peace of a stable, the warmth of the hay, the gentleness of warm animals and the music of angels. Peace. Peace on Earth. How we all wish that could be. And maybe for a moment, an evening, we can combine that Universal thought with heaven and believe it can be. Then there are the children. Do you ever wonder what they're thinking? (Apart from the presents that are actually beside the point) There's magic in the air. There's glitter in the air - tinsel and soft light, white fur and glistening snow and sparkling sunlight ... silver bells and satin ribbons... sugary treats and colored lights and a baby in the manger. Little lambs and Angels. Are children remembering another place? Another time? Are we all? Could this "Christmas" that we love, take us back to where we used to be? Is "Christmas" a reminder of who we are? Could this be a glimpse of our Heavenly Home? Is it the Spirit of Christmas that we love - or is it the Spirit within us resonating with all that is good? I wish you all Peace, Love and Happiness - good friends, great food and a wonderful Christmas. Namaste.