Autumn is my favorite time of year.  Having grown up in New England and living here my whole life, I cannot imagine living without having four seasons.  While each of them holds their own beauty, autumn holds a special place in my heart.  I love everything about fall.  It is my favorite landscape.  The richness of the hues of the golden splendor that embraces the earth, envelopes you in such a warmth that you do not mind the brisk breeze that comes with it.  It is a time where you can slowly watch the landscape prepare for slumber.  When it is preparing to hibernate, and put to bed all that the bounty that the summer brought, until its return in the spring. 

Normally, every autumn weekend for me is spent picking apples, visiting pumpkin patches and making stockpiles of my favorite soups and stews to freeze for those long winter snow days. It is being outside, feeling the wind whip across you and feeling cleansed. This year has been a bit different.  As my husband and I have both been laid off in the past few months (me in June, and him in September), we have had to limit the weekend excursions and stay home instead of spending any money.  It was really weighing on me.  Until yesterday.

We love “spooky season” here.  Halloween is our favorite holiday by far, and we usually “go big”.  We drag out all the bins and boxes we have compiled over the years and turn it into our Halloween happy place.  I was not feeling it at all this year.  I have been feeling down and defeated.  Worried about all things financial, emotional and otherwise.  But yesterday, my husband and I dug into all those boxes, and I made myself get out there and do something.  AND I FELT GREAT! 

We spent the day creating our spooky graveyard and with trees full of skulls. 

Lined our driveway with pallet fences with Halloween lights draped in chains and topped with pumpkins. 

I dragged the teenager out of her room to help and even she had fun.  We spray painted and drilled and strung up ghosts until we had turned our everyday yard into something awesomely spooky and full of fall spirit.  Cars drove by and slowed down to look, or gave us a thumbs up.  The neighbors came from across the street to walk around and check it out.  I forgot the awesome feeling that the season and the holidays gives to me. 

As I walked out to the street to look at our finished product in the dark, I was reminded that it really is the simple moments that mean the most.  Our pumpkins may be from Walmart this year instead of the farm, to save money.  We may drink apple cider around our own firepit, instead of riding in a tractor full of hay.  Our apple pie may be bought from a store, instead of made from the apples we picked off the tree in the orchard.  We may not have been able to do all those things we spend a fortune on every year, but the feeling is still very much there.  It is not about the places, but the people and the energy that the season provides for us.  It is about coming together to celebrate the season we all love so much.  And that is still very much present.

I hope, if you drive by our house, that you enjoy the views.  I know I will.  Every day when I pull in, I am reminded of the warmth that resides in my heart, and in my home, regardless of how cold the world seems to be.  And you can bet your sweet patootie, I will be out there on Halloween to greet every child and adult that crosses our porch with a warm smile, a sweet treat, and a grateful heart.

Happy Fall and Happy Halloween from my family to yours!


Joan Poirier is an Empath, a goddess, a woman, a wife, a mother, a sister, a friend. She is you, and she is me. Just a real woman, embracing her age and her wisdom, and not afraid of opening the dam and making some waves during her short time on the wild ride of life. She is on an ever-growing quest to live better, do better, be better and taking all the lumps that go with it.

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