Halloween

In most recent years, October 31st has meant raucous train rides home through Salem, MA with unruly passengers clad in various degrees of oddity. No, thank you. At best I usually give Halloween a sideways glance and a cold shoulder.

Until this year.

Because, ALICE! This year I was counting down to October 31st, laying out her costume days before, trying it on her and giggling over how cute she was.

My mom snagged this sweet puppy get-up late last Fall when we were consignment shopping for maternity clothes. It was a world ago, when home projects and job changes and emotional complications had not yet hit. 2013 was an altogether simpler year. 2014 has been so very hard. But, we're coming out the other side of this long tidal wave. Putting this puppy costume on our precious girl flashed me back to last Fall, all we've gone through since then, and just somehow reminded me of life's continuum. There are exciting times of anticipation. There are long stretches of sadness or loss. There are rocky months that seem unending. And then there's Halloween. It all strings together into a narrative that is best appreciated for its whole- the story its telling of community and courage, humility and achy goodness, There are times to bear and then there are evenings for knocking on neighbors' doors and asking, outright, for candy.

I'm on board.