the Mom-Stuff Community

OCTOBER

People weary with the world will take time off to go to the mountains for a look at the splendor of autumn leaves.  In every shade of orange they proclaim their glory.

Each species has its own breathtaking pigment and each tree seems more beautiful than the last.  October is for rejoicing in the majesty of tangible beauty.  We smell it, we see it, we roll in the leaves and experience it. There is no practical purpose to the color changes; the trees are playing after the hard work of summer.  This is the season for hayrides and county fairs and silly costumes and pranks.

Play is difficult for Americans and other highly westernized cultures.  We spend huge amounts of money and time working at having fun, but play is a different thing.  Play is squirrels chasing each other on the branches even as they gather winter’s store.  Play is kids wading through mountains of leaves so they can be gathered again, without thought for getting the pieces out of their hair.  Play is ordering ice cream on your pancakes for breakfast.  Learning to play brings back the sweetness to life.

Branches are the frame work on which the seasons unfold, just as our minds form the basis for performing the duties of our lives.  Branches by now have had most of the sap withdrawn from them as the tree prepares to survive the winter.  Bare branches reflect the lack of circulation.  As we limit the circulation of sweetness in our lives, the result can be “bare branches” too, where we become brittle and rigid in strict, joyless, disciplines.  Scrooge wasn’t a bad guy, he was just misguided from years of bitterness and false priorities. The change came as a cheerful countenance and a desire to play.  There was no doubt that he would continue to run his counting house, but we also know he enjoyed his abundance from that time forward.  The adage that “as a man thinketh, so he shall be” sets the parameters for our play and for the degree to which we really enjoy life.  For a variety of reasons, many of us grow up with basic beliefs that finding pleasure is time wasted, that this life is about working and suffering and joy and rewards are for the next, that if you’re not getting ahead you’re getting behind, and life is about getting there first. October reminds us that getting there can be a glorious ride. (more…)