This year, I felt the orange tinged stirrings of October in mid August. I woke early one morning and stepped outside to enjoy the golden shine of the suns first rays. I noticed that the clear morning air had a bit to it, an October bite. You know the kind, when the warmth of the summer sun fails to envelope you like a cottony blanket and instead makes you gasp at the crispness. I knew then that autumn was making its way toward me and that October couldn't be far behind.
From that morning forward I began to plot and plan. I pulled out my October lists, got down the decorations, found my special socks and perused the this year October shopping selections. But then a funny thing happened, while I was busy getting ready for October, the rest of August and all of September disappeared. Like some magicians trick I find myself staring at the first freshly minted day of the month and I'm not ready. I am filled with the giddy joy that once again October is here. But I am also a bit dismayed that it finds me so unprepared. Well, not really unprepared, but......I think I need another week to wrap my head around the fact that it's finally here. I've already broken my solemn vow of pre pumpkin abstinence and have drunk pumpkin everything. I have eaten pumpkin cereal, burned pumpkin candles and cheated and read one of my October books. It's a weird in-between place that I find myself in. Anxious to get on with it, but already dreading that the time is ticking by so fast. One day down already, only thirty more to go. Time is precious and I want to squeeze every drop of joy out of the month that I can.
Which gets me back to why I started writing these thoughts in the first place. October has always been something special to me. It is a transition month and I love it most especially for that. To me October feels like Christmas, Valentine's Day, New Years, my birthday and Thanksgiving all rolled into one. I mark the calendar as I count down the days and look forward to when I can finally decorate again after the long lull of summer. I fall in love with everything, the tiny ice crystals on a spider web, the crunch of fallen leaves, pumpkins in every incarnation. I have time to take stock and revaluate my life and see where it is going and where I have been
In October time seems to slow down like in the Matrix. I have a chance to breathe and take everything in before the frost and snow of winter claim the landscape and another new year begins. October is a time of reminiscence. It also has a bit of a split personality. It is contemplative yet whimsical. You can curl up in a comfy chair by the fire and read, or you can paint your face, dress up and dance around the neighborhood. You can walk along a leaf strewn lane and watch the mist curl around the fence posts or you can find a corn maze and run and laugh till you are dizzy. You can bask in the warmth of a cup of pumpkin coffee or tea or you can scare yourself silly with a horror film. In October, the only thing limiting you is your imagination. Was that really a sasquatch in the hair salon, or a werewolf at Trader Vicks? Is your dentist really moonlighting as Dr. Jekyll or have you decided to find a sincere pumpkin patch and wait for the Great Pumpkin? Strange or not, October has a little bit of something for everyone.
So why do I write these mini novels each day during the month? Am I trying to convert you to my way of thinking? Maybe? Am I trying to mobilize a social media army in order to find me monster cereal or pumpkin soy nog? Possibly? What it comes down to is this, I want you to remember the magic. To dust off your inner child and look at what you thought was a dull grey world and see it through my orange colored glasses. Don't take life so seriously. Get off the crazy roller coaster ride of a life that you have created for yourself for one minute and enjoy the view. Smell the intoxicating scent of a caramel apple. Feel the kiss of a cold breeze on your cheek. Watch for bats in the middle of the night and take a clove of galic with you just in case they might actually be vampires. Let your freak flag fly and watch as others put theirs up too.
So, here we go, another October is upon us. Will you take up the challenge to find the joy and whimsy, the delight and sparkle of the month, or will you sit back complacent in the dull grayness and watch as life passes by? I hope you take the challenge. I hope you find amazing things and share them with me. Most of all I wish you a HAPPY OCTOBER!