Dear Reader:

I suppose , in the hierarchy of global decision-making skills, one small decision I made this autumn, falls short of being earth-shattering to the world… but, in my world, it was a decision that made me pause yesterday and then give myself a self-congratulatory pat on the back for making it. Let’s just say I am grateful, in many ways, for the change. .. every little thing.

What was it? The day I shared with you that this year, for the first time, Halloween decor was restricted to two or three pieces on the B&B side and one Jack o’ lantern on the porch. Halloween decor out… pumpkins ( lots and lots of pumpkins) in… most importantly I was going to start being thankful earlier and my largest wall decor said GATHER!

For the first time in decades I didn’t have to completely take down Halloween decorations yesterday to prepare for Thanksgiving. What a precious gift of time… everything can just stay the same… through Thanksgiving holidays! O Happy me! ( the only item that went back in the closet was the mailbox witch… she WAS cute!)

I had to smile contentedly as I passed homes where owners were on stepladders pulling down lights, ghosts, bats, vampires, monsters, spiders, and witches who had ” supposedly” run into the sides of trees!

But the best decision I made yesterday belongs to my last group of trick or treaters… It was 8:00 and I was trying to talk myself into turning off the porch and yard lights since mine were the only ones still left on in a street of darkness… in hindsight… thank goodness I was slow in doing so…

I had just gotten to the storm door when I felt movement on the porch. There were two girls on the porch… the older one had walked over to the other door which was locked and the lights out. As she turned at my voice I could see tears in her eyes… her little sister though was still grinning and jumping up and down with a little pink tu tu around her pants…

Suddenly a car door slammed and and this woman started up the sidewalk… she was the mother and apologizing … she had to work late and the girls were upset because they had no costumes and now all the lights had been turned off… mine was the only one so far they had found still on…

” Well you picked the right house ” I exclaimed ” I just found another bag of candy a little while ago and was wondering how I was going to get rid of it… ( I had gotten ” boo’ed” by three neighbors and had a pretty hefty selection of goodies.” )

They held up two paper bags and thankfully I was able to fill them up pretty good! So when I read this message that CB Guess had found and put on FB …it struck home with me.

So until tomorrow…

Halloween: a day when we get it right. Strangers come to us, beautiful, ugly, odd, or scary, and we accept them all without question, compliment them, treat them kindly, and give them good things. Why don’t we live like that? ( Steve G. Holmes) AMEN!

Today is my favorite day -Winnie the Pooh

I sent this cartoon to Tommy and Kaitlyn… a lot of truth in it…” If the world is going to the dogs… that is probably a very good thing! 😂