Farmers plant in the spring, they tend their crops all summer long and look forward to this time of the year as a time of harvest.  Imagine their surprise if when they dig up the potato patch, looking forward to buttery mashed potatoes for dinner and instead, found only turnips!  Pounds and pounds of unexpected, unwanted and undeniable frustration.

 

Life can be like that and life with little ones is like that more often than not.  This weekend was supposed to be about Halloween costumes, candy and creativity.  We planned ghost stories and get togethers and nights filled with parties and fun.  We planned for days, or even weeks to get our kids ready, class parties supplied and candy baskets full for the coming wave of trick or treaters, but guess what?   This year is more trick than treat.

 

The Nor’Easter has knocked out power all over New England and parents and kids are scrambling to stay warm, dry and even have some fun.  We planned for leaf peeping and pumpkin picking, but we got high winds and wet snow.  Nine inches in my backyard!   Hundreds of homes with no electricity, heat or running water and utilities companies that offer no more comfort with their words that with their inability to deliver electricity.

 

Here’s what we do have.  Choices.  We can grumble about closed roads and cold homes, or we can open our doors and our hearts to our neighbors who need help and show our kids and remind ourselves what we’re made of.  We came through this after Hurricane Irene and we will come through this Halloween Nor’Easter.  Just think, now we have our very own scary stories to tell.  We have The Case of the Mystery Meat defrosting the back of the freezer.  We have The Tale of the Missing Mittens disappearing in the drier.  We have the Legend of the Night the Lights Went Out in Suburbia. 

 

We will still celebrate Halloween, maybe not exactly as we planned, but with just as much energy and enthusiasm.  (At the very least, it will help us keep warm.)  Maybe Mother Nature’s trick, is actually a treat in disguise.  It’s all the way we choose to see it.

 

Happy Halloween and keep you face to the sun, (that way it will be warmer).

 

Marilynn

Categories: General

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