My Son Sees Spirits…I Think

I think that my son sees angels following him around.

I'm pretty sure he sees demons, too. I hate the thought of it, but I have to admit that just like he'll see the same challenges all people on Earth see, if he sees an angel, there are probably their counteracting demons nearby. It's the nature of things, no?

Angels and demons. Peaks and valley. Strikes and gutters.

Here's the thing—he stares intently at something near the ceiling. All. The. Time.

He's constantly looking up, and it's not mere gazing into the distance. He is looking at something, and it holds his focus, so if his head moves, his gaze stays. It didn't take me long to see that he was focused on something right from the beginning. It's not in one spot, it's not at one time, his staring is unpredictable, and anyone who has held him for more than a few hours knows that he's got a thing, and that thing is staring at something near the ceiling.

If you watch any kind of cable TV programming about hauntings, you know that kids and animals are much more in touch with the spirit world than jaded adults. Common sense reinforces that, at least for me. We see more when we have an open mind.

So, when I found my son staring so intently at something, it didn't take me long to think it was spirits

And, as an optimistic and (of course) worried parent, I like to think that it's mostly angels.

The night he came home he was pulsing with an otherworldly energy. It was the middle of the night and my wife was asleep after a traumatic four day ordeal at the hospital. The dog was with a friend. It was me and Huck.

He awoke and looked up for one of the first times since he was in the hospital. The hospital was mayhem. This was the first time he was in the world. The hospital is a like a busy, crazy airport. Now, he was in the real.

So, I held him on my lap, and let him soak in what probably appeared as a wet blob. His eyes blinked open and closed. Mostly, they stayed closed. But even that night, I remember his peculiar focus on something near the ceiling. He just looked up and it seemed like he saw something. It was the only thing that he did that night that felt like behavior with awareness.

We live in a townhome with vaulted ceilings.They open all the way to the second floor. There is a lot of space to look around. That night, and every day since then, without fail, he has spent time staring at something near the ceiling.

I immediately thought it could be something from the spirit world. Much to the chagrin, I think, of my wife and all of my family members. Half the time I think they'd rather I just shut up about this stuff.

But I could see it. I'm a believer in the eternal soul (or something like that), so here his soul is, back on Earth in physical form. Or, even more intense, here for the first time. The moment conception happened, he slipped from wherever he was to here. Our union and love created the gateway. And here he is. Huck.

Huck didn't come alone. He came with a posse. Protectors. Looker-outers. Guardians. And he came with foes. Fiends. Detractors. Haters.

Angels and demons.

His posse has angels. His foes are demons. The eternal war continues, and he, being fresh from the spirit world, is the center of the skirmish.

At some times, he's seeing an epic battlefield. Other times, it's an argument between two major players in his drama. There are moments when he might be holding court. He's surrounded by the souls that love him. I'm one of them, but I can't protect him from the things that the spirits can. I can lead his soul on the physical plane, but the ethereal is their arena. Go, angels. Go.

At other times, he's in the court. The demons have him in on trumped up charges of transgressions they're trying to make stick.

Or, a demon disguised as an angel tries to get him alone.

His countenance changes as would ours in the changing situations of our lives. He runs the gamut as he stares. Concentration. Concern. Worry. Amazement. Contentment.

One night my wife said she saw him notice right at the edge of the couch. He saw it, and gave it the old up and down glance, like we do when we first meet a person.

Like, "Hm. You."

It doesn't really affect him specifically. It doesn't elicit response or reaction. He doesn't cry out after gazing at his spots. But he won't take his eyes off it.

He looks just like me when I'm watching a big game. Eyes in one spot, amazed at what is unfolding in front of me, enthralled with the drama that is happening, and hoping for my team to win.

From his curious habit, I've constructed a storyline.

Huck came from the other side, a realm of spirits. I don't know much about it besides that I think his spirit existed long before his physical form here on Earth. I also think that our physical existence, to spirits in other ethereal dimensions, may be of great value. I can't imagine these spirits communicate the way we do. They don't walk up to each other and say "Hello, my name is Frank and these are my interests." That they could understand, though, that it's cooler to be in physical form on a planet like the Earth is an idea I can accept.

Maybe the spirits know they are without body, and they know being with body is the goal. In spiritual worlds, this could be the only form of currency that exists. In a non-physical dimension, perhaps the only thing of value could be getting to the physical dimension.

So, Huck is allowed through. Lotto winner. Draft choice. Can't beat it.

However, some demons want to do just that. They want his spot. They crave the love he receives. They can't stand the fact that he has the sun, sky, stars, moon, water, animals, people and all the other physical blessings birth on Earth brings. They hate that he can walk, run, jump, speak, sing, see, hear, love and experience. They want what he has.

However, the bodhisattva angel warriors are behind Huck. They got his back in the deepest sense possible. They want to see him live. They were with him on the other side and they are helping him gain a foothold here. They fly in to the dark demons face and thrash the powers of darkness with good and light. They give of themselves for whatever reasons anything gives of itself.

The battling intensified right before he made the journey. The demons were making a last ditch attempt at claiming his spot. Huck's soul's past actions both haunted and helped him. His desire to be here might have pushed him through. Maybe he didn't care if he came or not but accepted his luck as the chosen one of that moment, and went with it.

For the first two months of his life, he was very colicky (colicky babies seem uncomfortable to varying degrees, and tend to scream and cry a lot). Both my wife and I are homebodies. When I have a big project that needs support, I like to set up and be there as much as possible to handle whatever might come my way. With a baby, the best place to be is home.

So, there we've been, since day one. Until this week. We started taking him out to places besides the store. The park. The pool. The Lagoon Series.

At all these places, I found him still doing his thing. He looks up, and I'm sure he's seeing something, making me think that it my storyline is accurate. When I first considered it could be spirits, I wondered if my house was just haunted and I'm too physically human to see it.

Nope. He did it at the park, and he did it at the pool. He did it on the CSU campus, and, come to think of it, he does do it at the other places I've taken him like the grocery and hardware stores.

In the beginning, I thought the demons were giving him hell. He was very serious when he first emerged from the traumatic birth. For the first two months, it wasn't very often that he was awake and happy. He was either eating, screaming, crying or sleeping. Furrowed brow, uncomfortable look, whining, squirming. He didn't seem too happy in his skin. I think his coming over was rougher than some.

However, at about week seven, the energy shifted. The light of happiness in his soul seemed to start to shine through. Maybe, the demons put up a good fight in that last battle that decided whether he would come or stay. Maybe, during his first few weeks, he was reeling from the turmoil that transpired in his mission to manifest.

And maybe, once he was here, there were demons, hell bent on hanging on to him, trying to pull him back over to their side. Maybe, just maybe, this has happened to all of us, and the demons and angels are still battling over our souls. We're just not in proper tune to experience it. I know that I still feel something like it. I act in ways that are sometimes inspired by angels, at others determined by demons.

Go, angels. Go.