It's Halloween!

Here we are- Halloween again.  My favorite holiday of the year.  As I mentioned in the beginning of the month, I much prefer today to New Year’s for making goals and “resolutions”.  I like to consider this my New Year’s Eve and November 1^st my New Year’s Day.  Though it’s not everyone’s thoughts-I am not solo on this view. 

The History Channel tells us: 

"Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter."

            It is my theory that, if our loved ones are closest to us at this time of year, they can help us stay on the straight and narrow with our goals.  So what are my goals for this coming year?  I am only making two and they are pretty straight-forward.

 

                             I am going to take better care of myself and

                             I am going to be disciplined about saving money. 

It sounds simple, right?  But it all comes down to making good choices.  The most important questions for me this year will be “do I really need that?”and “what more can I do?”  They work for both of those goals, you know?

 Do I need that chocolate (those chips, that pizza)?

 Do I need that new doodad? 

What more can I do? 

Can I take a walk? 

Can I make dinner at home instead of going out to a restaurant? 

The questions just work- as long as I bang them into my head- hard.  

The other thing I am going to work on- and this may be a multi-year journey- is to find my passion.  I have been thinking and thinking and thinking about it.  I don’t know what it is in my life that I truly have a passion for.  Oh, there are things that bring me joy but I cannot pinpoint what it is that I can see myself doing every day of my life that will fulfill me from my soul out.  So, looking for that will also be a goal- but one without a specific end.  That’s it.  That’s all she wrote.  Literally….

Happy Halloween!