"Season of sweet decay"

Fall. I falter to some extent every year around this time. All the pretty, simple pleasures outside die. Crunchy messy leaves lead to cold, dark, S.A.D. days.  Wuah wuaahhh.

Again with my privileged, ridiculous, first world problems, I know. Weah weah.

The best I can do today to look outside myself is to give you these interesting links about the state of affairs in the Ethiopian government and our relationship therewith. And to encourage you to donate to this worthy cause close to my heart.   

But Fall. I’ve bitched annually about hating Halloween. I envy others’ cleverness and creativity and always end up loathing whatever my chosen costume says about me.  This year, my kids’ fabulous progressive Montessori school sent home a notice inviting parents to join the Halloween parade/party in costume. “(homemade costumes encouraged)”. HOMEMADE COSTUMES ENCOURAGED. Nightmare.

Listen to me. Really? That's a big nightmare? Laugh at me with me, in a mean, scoffing way.

Here’s the deal. I can't hate Halloween anymore. I can't dread winter. Traditional diminished capacity while the Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the sun (or however that works) - any % decrease in functioning from where I’m at now, entering this season, would be wholly unacceptable. I cannot invite more negativity to flow into and out of me. I think the technical term for that would be certifiably bat-shit crazy.

 I recently listened to somebody, probably on NPR, talking or singing or poetrying about how winter doesn’t actually kill the trees/plants. Living things sink all their energy into roots and hold still, underground, storing up strength for the next growth season. Obvi, duh. But it hit me like dawn rising over marble head. It keeps hitting me, or rather, I keep bashing it over my head, and it’s working. Slowly.

I have inspiring friends helping me embrace, or at least cling to, this idea.

"Gardens,whether wild woods or cultivated plots, inspire contemplation. In winter, that inspiration deepens, as this season is quieter, slower. In the relative emptiness, we see more of what is left, great and small."

This is the first year that my kids really “get” Halloween. Without my input, they've informed me that they’d like to be a fruit bat and a mermaid. They’re excited. And that’s always contagious.

I went to a Halloween store, resigned to buying a mermaid costume and a bat costume, but they all sucked. So we (crafty-like-ice-is-cold Halloween loving sister and I) went to Michael’s crafts. Where I, formerly the least likely person on earth to MAKE a costume, found enough attitude adjustment to proclaim it. 

Halloween is going to be fun. Halloween is going to be fun. Halloween is going to be fun.

Homemade costumes. Encouraged.