Halloween – Be That Person

October has returned, and unlike my usual post about things feeling hard this time of year, it feels lighter. There is beautiful weather, and there are trips to the pumpkin patch and football and concerts and plays. There are vanilla-flavored candles and fun decorations on the mantle. I love October!

But I know October can also be hard. We’ve moved past the beginning of the year honeymoon phase. Students and teachers are ready for a break. But first there is the end of the quarter and conferences and professional leaning and report cards.

This can be a challenging time.

Something I have learned through the years though is that spending too much time focused on the negative serves no value.

October has returned, and I am thrilled.

This has always been my favorite time of the year.

Halloween is big in my family. What’s not to love? Costumes and candy and pumpkin-spiced everything. This year we are taking our daughter to Disneyland to experience Halloween Disney style! We are picking out costumes for the triplets. I’ve got pumpkins in the entryway and gourds at work. It’s beginning to look a lot like Halloween.

You can feel a change in the weather. The leaves are on the cusp of turning. It is finally sweatshirt weather. There is comfort in thick socks and a soft sweater. There is comfort in wrapping up on the couch in a blanket reading a book. I spent hours doing that this weekend.

In the sweltering heat of July and in the frigid cold of January, I sometimes wonder why we live here. October reminds me! Autumn in the Midwest is spectacular. Nebraska is at her best when the rustic colors fill the trees and the gentle rain coats the streets. (It will rain again someday, right?) This is my favorite time of the year, and I know I am not alone.

I encourage you to pause in the midst of the crazy this week and savor the season. It goes by much too fast.

Focus less on the negative and more on the positive.

When someone says, “How are you?” Answer, “Fantastic!”

Positivity is contagious. Spread it around.

October has returned, and I am thrilled.

I grew up on one of those streets you see in the movies, blacktop not pavement, lined with tall oaks older than the people who lived in the houses. Autumn was magical. As a child, I would rake leaves into complex mazes in the backyard with my friends. At the end of the maze would always be a pile of leaves large enough to jump into and be totally hidden from view. Hot chocolate with marshmallows was the reward when we’d finally get the leaves into the bags and hauled up to the street. Half a dozen of us would trick-or-treat together for hours in the dark venturing further and further from our block each year. A particularly good memory is when my parents would take me over to my grandma and grandpa’s neighborhood to trick-or-treat. The house up the hill had this huge bell in the front yard, and all of the kids got to ring it for Halloween…better than any piece of candy would ever have been.

This has always been my favorite time of the year.

I hope I was able to make some of those same kind of memories for my children. Halloween is big in my family. What’s not to love? Dressing up in costumes, seeing your neighbors, getting candy just for asking. Many, many years as my own children were growing up, we’d host Halloween parties. We would bob for apples and mummy-wrap the kids in toilet paper. I’d make ghosts in the graveyard cakes and ooey-gooey things out of jello. One year (and only one year) I even sewed their costumes from scratch.

Some years, when the weather is just right, October is absolute perfection in the Midwest. The temperatures cool slowly which in turn allows the leaves to turn slowly, and we get the chance to truly appreciate the beauty of a Nebraska fall.

This has been one of those years. And I have been particularly nostalgic.

The seasons have always been such a powerful literary device. The analogy of new life each spring has always rung true for me. But this year I am taken by the fleeting nature of fall. Many times the leaves go from lush and green, to rustic colors of gold, to falling to the ground much too quickly. Some years, when I am busy and distracted, I almost miss it. This will not be one of those years. I will work on appreciating the moment.

My children have grown up too quickly.

My career in education is passing too quickly.

Time itself goes too quickly.

This is not melancholy. I am overjoyed at the season. I am blessed beyond measure, and I am working hard to take it all in. I’ve written before about the crazy nature of October for those of us in education. This year is no exception. I know it will slow down, but I am in the middle of busy.

I guess I am just reminding myself that fall is short. My favorite month will pass too quickly.

Slow down.

Watch the sunset.

Take a picture in a pumpkin patch.

Winter is coming.

Tag: Halloween

October Again

Pumpkin Patches and Bobbing for Apples