My wife claims she can see people's auras and ghosts. There's no way for me to verify that, so I'm still pretty skeptical, but according to her, "Your parents' place is crazy intense."

My mom and dad live in my childhood home, along with two cats. I have an older brother and a younger brother, but they both got married and moved out before me. Since I got married recently too, now it's just my parents. I thought about living with them, but my dad is a bit of a handful, so I gave up on that idea. That said, my wife and I started our new life within walking distance of my parents' place, so it doesn't really feel like I left. Both of us work, so we're busy, and eating dinner at my parents' house saves money—so I ended up dropping by all the time, which made it feel even less like I'd moved out. My wife, however, seemed to want to go over there for a completely different reason.

"Your mom's aura is totally different from anyone else's."

According to my wife, my mom naturally gives off a soothing, positive energy. That in itself isn't too unusual, but what makes her special is that she seems capable of sharing it with others. My mom loves feeding people, and apparently, she passes her aura along with the food. It's only a tiny amount, but even that little bit supposedly thins out the negative energy in people and cleanses them.

My mom has a big-sister personality—always taking care of everyone. Maybe she's just a natural nurturer, or maybe her maternal instinct is off the charts. Her spirit of selflessness is second nature to her; she doesn't have a selfish bone in her body. It feels good just being around her, and I respect her from the bottom of my heart. She works in childcare and has a powerful energy that belies her age. She's bright, straightforward, and welcoming to anyone. Pretty much everyone who crosses paths with her ends up coming over to visit our house. Maybe people gathering around her are being drawn in by her aura, too.

Being the kind of person she is, there are always plants and animals being raised at my parents' place. And for some reason, they all grow unusually large across the board. My brothers are both pretty huge guys compared to average men. Even though I was raised the same way, I'm the only one who ended up average height and build for some reason. As for animals, cats are mysteriously drawn to our house, and there's never been a time without one. The two we have now are rescues. The cat before them was a kitten of a stray we had taken in even earlier. He was a relatively large black cat—over fifteen pounds—and lived for twenty years.

I can understand animals and people growing big, because my mom serves massive portions of food (haha). But when even the plants grow huge without any special treatment besides basic care, it feels like there really must be some unseen factor at work.

Come to think of it, when my mom was young, she once took a temporary job as a food vendor just because it looked easy. Supposedly, she set a sales record and got a special bonus. They even offered her a full-time job, but she turned it down because she already had other plans. I used to think of that as just a cute story about my food-loving mom, but maybe her aura played a part in that, too. I don't know if this is related either, but my late grandmother loved my mom's Coming-of-Age Day photo above all else. "Looking at this gives me a strange kind of energy," she'd say, keeping it close to her.

Just recently it was my mom's birthday, so everyone gathered at the house to celebrate. When we arrived, she had already cooked a spread of homemade dishes so massive it couldn't all fit on the table, leaving us unsure if we were celebrating her or if she was entertaining us. When I thanked her as the guest of honor, saying, "It must have been a lot of work to prepare all this, thank you," she insisted, "Since everyone gathered here, of course I'm going to cook!" Classic mom, I thought. Though, making all that home cooking even when she knew everyone else was bringing food felt like a bit much. That night, my stomach was fuller than it had ever been in my entire life.

Famous power spots are popular travel destinations, but for my family, our ultimate power spot is definitely my mom.