Boo Who?

If spirits can be anywhere any time, why are they always taking the stairs?

I know I mentioned the other day that I was going to address the question, what is death, and I will, but somehow here we are at Halloween already.

I have such mixed feelings about Halloween. I have never cared about dressing up or partying on Halloween. It was GREAT as a kid, the tsunami of candy, but I wasn’t creative enough or resourced enough to do costuming well. We usually had those horrible drug store numbers—a polyester costume that included a mask with a thin rubber band holding it on your head. Or the classic sheet with holes ghost. I actually still think that’s the pinnacle of costuming, only now if I wore it I’d call myself the Hole-y Ghost.

As an adult I have always been suspicious of people who love wearing a costume and drinking or partying for Halloween. It’s always felt kind of creepy to me.

Candy, however, never gets old.

But what about the spirits at this time of year? Are we closer to the so-called other side around Halloween? It’s a great question.

In certain traditions All Souls Day and All Saints Day are celebrated this week. My favorite saint was Juniper, a pal of St. Francis’s, because he was a kind of jester to Jesus, supposedly, and apparently took nice things from rich people and gave them to the poor. Totally my kind of guy.

But the spirits, do they find it easier to connect with us for some reason at this time of year?

Yes, perhaps, but most likely only because we put more of our collective energy toward the idea. Those who have died are always available to us, but most of the time our skepticism or grief or busyness gets in the way.

I’m thinking of teaching a little class on spiritual connectivity in December, though I know that’s a really crowded time of year. But I love stick season, when the earth is quiet and the air is crisp and the moon really shines bright. I adore the winter solstice.

But again, there is no need to associate communicating with those who have left the body with any particular time of year. For me it’s part of my everyday life, I’ve integrated it in a way that’s just part of my existence and it’s fun and funny and helpful and mysterious and curious and beautiful and not all that different than it is to be in relationship with people walking around here.

Here is the benefit of living this way: I can say with whole-hearted honesty that if today is my day to die, I’m ready to go. And in the world we’re living in today, this feeling brings peace. And peace is not something that’s easy to come by anymore.

I know we don’t usually pair dying and peace, but we should. I feel certain that life on the other side is far more peaceful than it is here.

I hope you eat a ton of candy today. xomo