Autumn and Halloween

I’m not a Halloween guy and the commonly proscribed religious holidays that bracket it aren’t mine, but the end of October is a deeply spiritual time for me.

The encroaching descent into long nights, the surrounding beauty of dying nature, and the enforced slowing of life as necessitated by oncoming cold, cause the end of autumn and the onset of winter to resonate for me. It touches the part of my heart and mind that form my spiritual core, bringing me a quiet peace that I can’t live without.

There’s a beauty in transition, an acceptance of oncoming peace that being surrounded by increasing darkness and death encourages you to embrace. Knowing that life is beautiful even when it’s ending or hibernating is powerful.

Death stopped being scary for me a long time ago (that’s not to say I am seeking it out or embracing it!) and this quietly period between autumn and winter when everything holds its breath and stands still while waiting for the first snowfall or the next step is the perfect place for me to exist.

Life moves too fast for me when I’m manic and it’s hard to enjoy when I’m depressed. Summer is overwhelming, it’s always an explosion of activity that I either can’t enjoy or feel forced to outrun.

Autumn brings an end to chaos of life and summer, the rioting joy that is so essential but so exhausting. Winter brings a quiet circling and surrounding of what’s important: community, family, tribe and friends.

Here’s to transition, death, darkness, and encircling yourself with tribe. Heres to snow, giving us a chance to appreciate beauty even when it has to hide the dirt underneath. Here’s to those who came before us and showed us we can be better, and those who will come after and show us how we were better than we thought. Here’s to spring, bringing light and life back to the world, showing us that death and transition, darkness and cold, all pave the way for a rebirth of self, spirit, and world.

Here’s to you, my family. My tribe. My friends.