I’ve read that when someone loses a limb, it takes their brain a long while to adjust to the loss. For years afterwards they experience pain in the missing part. Suddenly the leg, no longer there, has an itch. It’s called phantom pain.
Although certainly not as tragic, I too experience a phantom sensation of sorts. It’s been eight years since we left South Asia, but every time I hear something scamper across the roof, I assume it’s the monkeys! Every time a branch bounces under the weight of a critter I know with an unfounded, and yet uncanny, confidence, it’s the monkeys. When I realize it’s merely a squirrel, I’m shocked every time.
I’m curious. Do you have any lingering phantom sensations? Anything that catches you off guard with a chuckle and a moment of surprise that says–that’s not a monkey?
About the picture: This photo was taken about ten or eleven years ago on our roof in Varanasi. These mischevious monkeys were playing in the run-off from our water tank when our good friend and photographer, Kris Hoffman, just happened to catch them in the act!