The ghost of a possum
People always ask if there are ghosts in our house and I don’t want to be boring but, I don’t really think there are. But there’s definitely the memory of me when I learned to make sufganiyot here, and Kip the day he learned to roll over, and I bet if you listen carefully you can hear some of the 80s French pop music Boaz played on repeat last year (we almost learned the words).
Do you have restaurants or apartments or places that seem packed with your past selves? Does your pet have a better memory than ours does? (In Kip’s defense, Boaz didn’t bring a suitcase on this trip so it was pretty confusing.) Which decade of yourself would be the most frustrating to be haunted by?
By the time you read this Boaz will be back and hopefully we will have gotten another good look at that possum.
Big postscript: There are two shirt designs for sale from Commonwealth press! They’re screenprinted by hand in Pittsburgh and are so lovely, and come in kid and adult sizes. I’m really proud of these shirts but hate telling people to buy things, I hope that if you want to treat yourself or someone else to a shirt you get one and love it.
On ghosts: I've lived in my Condo for about 15 years now. Initially whenever I would sit on the landing (not on the ground floor, not on the second floor) and meditate, the cats would sit nearby and look behind me. I figured it was someone helping me with the meditation. It took a number of years to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke from the previous owner One day long after I had things smelling much better, the doorbell rang. It was a tiny child I did not know. His father stood off on the sidewalk and explained that he liked to ring doorbells. I said that's fine, and thanked him for ringing mine. The little guy then pointed towards my patio gate and said "There's someone on your patio smoking." I showed him no one was physically there but....well. gee.
On the tee shirts --- on my goodness there is a PIN! I am getting the pin!!!
We had a possum that came around one spring. A tiny possum we named Pinky and the cats were fascinated from behind the big glass door and it looked so lonely like it had lost its family, and I knew that feeling so well. And I keep looking for Pinky, small or grown up but I haven't seen them since. There are these shadows, these faded marks on our hearts and maybe that is what Kip feels too. I think about all the plants left behind at my childhood home, now sold--I can close my eyes and remember what they look like when they were just pushing up from the leaves in the spring. There are two owls that live in the trees behind our house (and behind the houses on our street) and I haven't heard them in the last few months and I am afraid to worry about them because what if they are gone? I've known them for over 8 years. They are my only friends here. xo