Was this the beginning of my Spiritual Path?

Beautiful picture by Mark Adamus

Today I got thinking about when I was a kid...not dwelling on things but just remembering things that happened back then. I can remember when I was about 9 years old and I had been riding my bike around some land near where I lived (and my parents still do).
 This land was by the side of a river where I would play a lot, either by myself or with the other kids that I knew. We were hardly ever indoors and would be out from first thing in the morning to last thing before dinner and during the summer back out after we had eaten. We would often play in the nearby chalkpit and woodlands, fields and the old railway track and up the lanes to the downs, but my very favourite place to be was by the river. I remember taking jars over there with nets where we would catch sticklebacks and newts and then release them later. We would watch the water voles and we would paddle and swim in there too.

Picture by Gilbert Williams

   A large part of our lives were drawn to that river...I loved it and don't often get a chance to go over there any more. The roads have got so busy now, so much more traffic than there used to be when we would sit outside my parents house on the high wall and wave at the coaches full of tourists as they went past and we always got waved back.
 So this one day I had gone out on my own with my bike and decided to stop and see the horses. There was a bush nearby and as I was petting the horses I caught sight of something out of the corner of my eye. It was about the size of a short adult and much rounder. It was a bright light and it shimmered. I wasn't afraid of it, infact I felt drawn to it. I sensed that it was female which as a kid you just accept, the doubting only ever comes in when you're an adult. This light was hovering just slightly off the ground behind the hedge, as I moved closer to her she came out from behind the hedge. I moved slowly around her but my eyes never left her for a moment. She was beautiful, every so often I could pick out facial features that would come and go but she was always shimmering, with the colours you see in a bubble but she was no bubble. I felt as if she spoke to me but not using words but I could understand her and I was fascinated and again, I felt completely at ease and safe.
 Then someone started towards us walking a dog and she wobbled slightly and faded away. I felt so sad that she had gone, frightened off by this other person.

 Even now after all these years I still think back to that day. I never saw anything quite like that again but I don't think that I needed to, the experience no matter how fleeting changed the way I am and paved the way for the person I was to become.
  I had quite a few different experiences when I was young and some when I was not so young. One day I was playing up the lane at the back of my parents house, it was near the house owned by Professor Milne of the seismology fame. One day I met a girl called April and we sat on the wall and chatted and we played. I asked if if she lived nearby and she said that she does, she told me her father who was a scientist had died. It was supposed to have been an accident but she told me that he had got called into the house where he worked and when he was standing in the entrance hall someone up on the landing above pushed a part of the staircase handrail on top of him and he was killed. Later on I went home and told my parents about April and they spoke to other people as I spoke to my friends and no one could shed light on April, her father or the tale that she told. Back then I never knew about John Milne and that the house that myself and April were sat on the garden wall of was his but it is another memory that sticks with me. Looking back on it now I now know that April was a spirit, the clothes that she wore were much different to mine and she seemed much different to everyone else I knew.

 These two experiences weren't the only ones that I have had during my life and I know that there are many more experiences to look forward to. When I was a child I had friends, human and animals alike that no one else could see. I have seen, felt, heard, smelled many different things associated with being in close proximity to spirits and my kids have experienced it too.
 How lucky I am to have had those experiences, I feel so blessed to be on this path that I am on and understand that it started way back when I was a child.