First of all let me start by wishing you all a healthy and happy Halloween.  A ritual that has it’s own history that at it’s core deals with transitions; from one season to another; from one state of mind to another and indeed, from one state of being to another.  Marking a connection between life and death and all that symbolizes this contrasting state of being.  Indeed, what we now know as Halloween, went through it’s own transitions and evolutions over time and across cultures and still does so today.  It seems, for example, that neighborhood trick or treating door to door is giving way to organized parties where all the ghosts and goblins and hosts of ghosts dwell.  It’s all good and it’s all fun.  Personally, I’m more of a Thanksgiving and Christmas kinda guy, but that’s for another day.  For now, it’s a period of transitions, and transitions, more often than not, are accompanied by deep philosophical undercurrents of joy, release and acceptance.  This as we all learn one of life’s toughest lessons.  Just how to hold on, while at the same time, letting go; to morn while we celebrate; to come together in both the darkness and the light…giving candy, to a gool.

Transitions also evoke contrasts.  From light to dark but also from warm to cold.  From seemingly unending bright yellow summer days that hang in the haze, to their contrasting sisters where long flowing shadows of mystery are more the norm.  The summer would have us believe that she goes on forever, however, the approaching chill reminds us in a very healthy way that time is still passing.  And that while rest and recreation is a must, that there comes a time to move on again.  That time is our friend if we nurture her , but can be onerous if she is left ignored.  I strongly reject the notion of some that say “time is a fire in which we all burn”.  It’s more accurate to say that time is a light that the wise ones choose to follow; the essential ingredient to our very humanity and yes, our mortality.  Perhaps it is both a strength and a weakness of the human condition.  Two opposing sides of the continuum  where the fulcrum of living deliberately holds vigil between the two, both securing  and preserving a living balance.  To guide us with equal measure of joy and restraint;  with rapture’s yearning and the surrender of satisfaction.  In this way our very mortality teaches us of the true gift of life, and this is the crucial point, the gift of life WHILE IT IS OURS TO SHARE.  Understanding that as we have fewer hours of light in a day than we have dark, each hour therefor becomes more valuable.  The darkness and cold teaches us the urgent value of the NOW, and of TODAY, and that NOW IS FOREVER.   Acceptance and transition are intimate friends of growth.  Let us all grow together.  Happy Halloween!