TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Do angels or ghosts really exist?

ADVERTISEMENT

By Raleigh Whiteman | Highlands Today

Published: June 24, 2009

Do angels or ghosts really exist?

I would suppose that if one believes in Heaven, God, and the Bible it would follow that believing in angels is understandable.

With that said, I am not sure what to say about ghosts. So far, all I know is that most ghosts are not very happy about their situation of haunting and tormenting those who they are stuck with until they have been exorcised away by some religious ceremony. Except for Casper the Friendly Ghost, which no one in real life has ever reported seeing. Ghosts are not friendly.

There have been many times that I believe an angel has assisted or protected me and my family in ways that can only be described as supernatural or spiritual.

Real or imaginary?

It may be that they exist only in our subconscious mind and only come out in times of stress or turmoil.

Many years back, while living in the Florida Keys, the PW and I contracted with a Tampa builder to build us a three bedroom house shell on stilts and I would do the electrical, plumbing, bath, kitchen and interior walls and all the painting and finishing.

I had all the wiring installed and thought it was OK until one morning St. Elmo's lightening started running back and forth from the temporary pole and the house.

Scared that it would get into the house I knocked down the temporary electrical wire I had leading from the temporary pole into the house with a long 2x4.

Perplexed

I was stumped and could not continue until the problem was solved. I was using the outlets in the house for electricity for the tools. About a week later something told me as I was driving home from work that the electrical problem could be because both the house and the temporary pole were grounded. I had no idea where this idea came from but I disconnected the ground wire at the house and the problem was fixed. I then ran an extension line from the pole into the house for the tools.

Decisions, decisions

Last week the PW and I were in a turmoil about whether to drive to Brandon (90 miles) or Eustis (140 miles) to attend an Elks Army of Hope Picnic. It's a statewide Elks fundraiser to assist military families with car repairs home repairs bills, appliance breakdowns, doctor bills, etc.

I needed to pick up my laptop which I had left at the Youth Camp for repairs and the trip to Eustis would save me a future trip up there, but the Brandon picnic was in my district and much closer. I had to cover one or the other for the Elks newspaper. But I really needed to get the laptop to load it for a future trip.

Angel assisted again

As I was getting dressed, my elbow hit a doorway frame on a wall that has shelves with family photographs. The bump caused a 1944 photo of my mother with me and my brother that she had made to send to our father in the South Pacific during World War II to fall and break.

I though, just as Joya said, "I think your mother is trying to tell you something."

We were told just minutes before leaving that the Youth Camp director will send the laptop to me via Fed-x. It solved our dilemma.

The trip to Brandon was uneventful, the picnic was successful, and I got a few good photos for the paper.

We will never know what the trip to Eustis had in store for us.

Raleigh Whiteman, of Lake Placid, is a contributing writer to Highlands Today. You can reach him on the Internet at rwwhiteman@comcast.net

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT