October Loves

In the middle of all the hard, there has been much good. In fact, as I review the month of October, the good shines brighter than any of my grumbling thunderstorms. Isn't the passage of time wonderful like that? What seems so hard at the moment, can soften after some reflection. 

So here are some of my October loves worth celebrating and remembering:

Owen and I celebrated 20 years of marriage! Wow, that is a long time. I have now been married for half of my lifetime. 

We had taken our trip to Bali as our big celebration before leaving Indonesia, but Owen still found a way to make our actual anniversary day special. White roses have always been my favorite.

And it may have taken 20 years of marriage...but Owen knows exactly how to encourage me. He strategically placed love notes around the house, like this one:

And I found this note in my car as I left to go teach:

We enjoyed a night in Washington DC, and in an act of TRUE LOVE, Owen bought tickets for us to see "Evita" at the Kennedy Center. Owen is not a huge fan of musical theater - in fact, he says he likes it just fine until the actors break into song and dance. Hence, the tickets were truly a selfless gift of love. 

Another thing worth celebrating is the autumn season. I get to walk out on my front porch every day to this sight:

Gold leaves glow like sunshine. Orange leaves, almost florescent in hue, eclipse even the bright pumpkins. While running along the trail, my feet create a rhythm of crunch and swish on the leaves - a lovely autumn melody.

While driving along a tree lined street, the leaves tumble through the air in impossible elegance. Then with a sudden gust of wind, a plume of leaves takes to the air like a startled flock of birds.  

The sights and sounds of autumn have healed my transient soul this past month. And for that, I love October.

And then there is the pure joy of Halloween. Oh what a fun holiday. I love everything about it: the cold weather, the costumes, the family excitement, the walk through the neighborhood, and of course the chocolate! We were a Gatsby gang this year (thanks to some pre-planning and Ria, our favorite Jakarta seamstress!)

I loved walking down Main Street as the night grew dark, climbing the wooden steps of front porches together, admiring jack-o-lanterns, and holding Charlotte's hand. I loved watching Elise and Charlotte run from house to house in their last "frantic" fifteen minutes of trick-or-treating. I loved laughing with Amelia and Truman as we scooped his candy off the road when his bag broke. And I LOVE LOVE LOVED spending the final hours of Halloween with friends, delicious food (oh the warm artichoke dip!), and hearing the squeals of frightful delight as the children played Ghost in the Graveyard outside.

Yes, there was plenty to love in the month of October.