October Is Magic Manifest

I dream of October all year long.

The second September quietly slips away something spooky is hung in the air. It’s as if the earth around us realizes that it is now certainly October 1st.

The older I get, the more I realize October is magic manifest.

Don’t even try to fight me on this – you have to feel it too.

No other month tastes like promise is in the air and lets you smell bonfire smoke constantly. No other month meshes the beautiful and the sinister so well: homecomings and Halloween, candy and college midterms. Don’t EVEN get me started on all things pumpkin.

I remember trick or treating around my grandparents’ neighborhood as a kid, and it was like a complete shift took place. Suddenly, the familiar houses took on an air of mystery. I could easily believe that a monster would come running around the corner at any moment, and walking through the doors of the house always felt different on Halloween than they did any other day of the year.

You don’t expect your adult self to hold onto childhood feelings, but October has not stopped thrilling me as the years creep past. Every year, it feels as if it’s the start of something new and the return of something familiar all in one crisp, spooky, thrilling coalition.

This month I’ll travel to unknown places and to the pumpkin patch. I’ll pull out my favorite Halloween movies and try not to break out the Thriller dance. I’ll curl up on the couch in my thoroughly decorated for the season, pumpkin spice scented apartment and catch a football game. And you better believe that when Halloween rolls around, I’ll be on the lookout for every monster I can spot.

I’m going to grasp tightly every piece of magic I can find, because the older you get, the more you realize how much our ordinary lives need to be infused with it.