{"id":9439,"date":"2014-10-31T17:57:10","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T21:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/?p=9439"},"modified":"2014-10-31T17:57:10","modified_gmt":"2014-10-31T21:57:10","slug":"looking-for-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2014\/10\/looking-for-halloween.html","title":{"rendered":"looking for Hallowe’en"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"the<\/a>
the author’s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We bought my grandson’s first ‘real’ Hallowe’en costume this year — a teddy bear. At least, I\u00a0thought<\/em> it was a teddy bear. Except that my incredibly crafty son & DIL made it into a (wait for it…) EWOK! How cool is that??<\/p>\n

So here’s Trin, in his Ewok costume, w\/ his orange pumpkin ready to hit the houses on the block. While I will be here in Tulsa, hundreds of miles away, answering the door to Frozen princesses and Batman villains & heroes. Sigh.<\/p>\n

I’m trying to put a good face on being a grownup, stuck handing out candy. I put on my HUGE bat earrings (a gift from a dear friend who knows how I love bats), my jack-o-lantern necklace, my skull bracelet (notice a bejeweled theme, here), and a basic black smuggler’s outfit. With a bright, pumpkin orange hoodie. That’s about as costumed as I get, these days.<\/p>\n

The Hallowe’en tray is full of Starbust, Skittles, midnight Milky Ways, and other good junk. There’s a glass bowl brimming with candy corn, too (for the hander-outers). My beloved will keep the two sound-like-they’re-rabid dogs on leads, so I can answer the door.<\/p>\n

It’s not as cool as the alluring call of walking up to strange houses w\/ your folks (or better yet, your BFFs). But it’s still good, this night when the borders between here<\/em> & there<\/em> blur…<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a>
the author’s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Still, I’m looking for something that will make it as special as it used to be, when I was much much smaller & younger. Some hint of the magic that made me believe the dead might walk, even speak, if I held a mirror just so, or a Ouija planchette on its board. I would love to visit w\/ my father, my mother, my old ladies… There’s so much I still want to say.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I made tea w\/ the autumn roses, and a sprig of scarlet sage. It will have to do as the elixir of the day. While I think of far-away Ewoks, and the dead who remain so very silent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We bought my grandson’s first ‘real’ Hallowe’en costume this year — a teddy bear. At least, I\u00a0thought it was a teddy bear. Except that my incredibly crafty son & DIL made it into a (wait for it…) EWOK! How cool is that?? So here’s Trin, in his Ewok costume, w\/ his orange pumpkin ready to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,549,908],"tags":[11,1181,1187,262,1195,672],"class_list":["post-9439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-grandmothers","category-halloween-2","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-family","tag-halloween"],"yoast_head":"\nlooking for Hallowe'en - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We bought my grandson's first 'real' Hallowe'en costume this year -- a teddy bear. 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