A Year of Noticing - Day 39
Trick-or-Treating Through a New Lens
Today I noticed some tall trees that still had vibrant yellow leaves, and they also caught my eye because they were much taller than the other trees around them. I think they may have been aspen (or trembling aspen as my children like to call them). I looked up and noticed how spectacular the sky looked, and the different layers and levels of colour!
Looking up gave such a different perspective, and I hadn’t even noticed how the clouds were speckled across the sky!
Sometimes have a different perspective allows us to experience the world in a whole new way, see things differently, and enjoy life differently!
Last week I saw this post on Facebook… you can find it by clicking here because I want to give full credit to the author (by The Soccer Mom Blog), and she shared the message, “HALLOWEEN REMINDER: Teens who go out trick-or-treating are choosing to be a kid over getting into trouble. Let ‘em have candy”.
Now… I remember the final year I went trick or treating was when I was 13 years old (in grade seven) and there were a few different home owners that berated us for being “too old” to be trick or treating. That messaging kind of stuck with me, and over the years I have some times found myself being (maybe a little) judgey about the teens who are trick or treating… Now I’m the mother of a teenager and he was still SO excited to go out and “be a kid” and experience the fun of the night.
Having this new perspective really allowed me to enjoy tonight so much more! First of all, I had more teenagers come trick or treating at my door than EVER before!
And I smiled and engaged with them each time! I could appreciate that they were having fun and being silly and being a kid… plus they really missed out on a few years of trick or treating anyways.
(Side note: I also had more trick or treaters that ever before… usually between 40-60 max… and this year it was over 120 kids that came to the door!!)
Having this new perspective helped me to enjoy the night more than I have before…
… because I really do feel a bit of a love-hate relationship with Halloween, and I’m increasingly curious about the Gaelic festival of Samhain and this fascinating time of connecting and honouring our ancestors, as the veils are thin to connect with those who have died… not in the scary ways, but in all the fascinating ways… and so tonight after I turned out the lights, I created a little spirit plate of treats and put it out to honour, thank and share some treats.
It is the end of the harvest, and beginning of winter… I’ve been feeling that shift over the past few days, and why not party and celebrate and feeling the excited energy on our street this evening - it felt electric and people were all having so much fun… and that way of honouring this season is something that I can enjoy!