Hi everyone,

Well it is the time of year that I love...Halloween.  Here at Daybreak Halloween is another chance to shut down all the work places and come together for a party.  Tomorrow we gather at the meeting hall for the Halloween party from 1:30-3pm. I know that there are those who still growl at how halloween is evil.  I say to those people....humbug!

I say it is easier to look at that dark side than to look at some of the symbols of Halloweeen and see how they work in our own lives. First the halloween costumes. Costumes and masks give us the opportunity to dress up, to be someone else, to mask our identity.  As people, we live painful stories by times and we wear masks to hide our feelings and emotions.  We hide behind our work, our clothes, our homes etc.  This tends to just bury the problems.  I was watching the costumes at the ARC  halloween dance and saw everything from Snow White, to Elvis, to motocycles  helmuted riders, to Priscilla Presley among many.  It was interesting to see and had me thinking (and laughing).  I thought of how these characters can say a lot about us.  Is it easier to fade away to a fairy tale world? Do we think our problems would be easier if we were someone else? We hide and pretend so much each day don't we...come on be honest!  What would people say if they knew everything we lived by times?

And then the pumpkin.....a great symbol and messy work, just like our lives.  A pumpkin at the surface seems unable to penetrate.  We begin to remove the top and peer inside and see all the pulp and seeds.  You have to role up your sleeves and begin to dig your hand in and scoop out the insides.  I take a spoon and dig and clean until the insides are smooth.  Already there is a transformation, something is diferent just by cleaning the insides and removing them.  We then take a knife and begin to carve and put on a new face. Then we light the candle and place it inside and it lights up the whole pumpkin and gives a new appearance.

Interesting how this pumpkin is like ourselves.  We know the work that needs to be done inside.  We realize that there are things that need to be scooped out of our own lives.  When we can remove that, already there is a difference.  Removing those things from within us begins to give us a new face.  Once we scoop away the inner stuff, only then can the light shine.

Yes I love Halloween, but it can be messy inner work, but necessary messy work....enjoy this time.  Until next time.

Jeff