{"id":197,"date":"2011-10-18T20:08:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-19T00:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/insweetcompany\/?p=197"},"modified":"2011-10-18T20:08:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-19T00:08:00","slug":"at-the-heart-of-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/10\/at-the-heart-of-halloween.html","title":{"rendered":"At the Heart of Halloween"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat had the most impact on me (as a young child)\u2026was the trust (my grandparents) had in me …\u00a0 the trust they had in my soul.\u00a0They were celebrating that which existed in me that was independent of my years.\u201d<\/em> —Alma Flor Ada,, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a great fan of Halloween. When I was two, my mom dressed me as a drum major in a red and gold costume that had a hat bigger than I was — something closer to a priest\u2019s miter than a shako. (Yup! That\u2019s what a drum major\u2019s hat is called; a shako.) I\u2019ve been dressing up ever since, roasting pumpkin seeds, writing and performing in Halloween plays, wearing my plastic pumpkin ring, dishing out more candy than I eat as the years go by, but loving it all the same.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m a Halloween Aficionado, but I would have said I\u2019m well versed in what the holiday has to offer. Or so I thought, until we moved to the Bay Area where residents decorate their houses much as people do at Christmas: (orange) glowing lights circle the rooftops and the trees, elaborate holiday scenes are replicated on front lawns, visitation schedules are posted for all manner of lookie loos who ooh and ah the decorations. Who knew there were so many different shades of orange?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve lived in Southern California most of my adult life, and in Detroit when I as a kid. I don\u2019t know if other areas of the country go to these same lengths at Halloween, but lately it sure is fun to get stuck at a long light in a residential area or take a quick left off Ashby onto a side street when a bit of something orange catches my eye.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t decided what I\u2019ll be this year for Halloween. I have boxes and boxes full of faux jewelry and turquoise boas, a witch prom dress, a candy cane pink yarn wig, a pair of blue and white saddle shoes that have seen a lot of dancing. The great thing is, I can be whatever I want to be. I seem to remember my mom whispering these words to me when I was little drum major.<\/p>\n

Your thoughts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat had the most impact on me (as a young child)\u2026was the trust (my grandparents) had in me …\u00a0 the trust they had in my soul.\u00a0They were celebrating that which existed in me that was independent of my years.\u201d —Alma Flor Ada,, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE I\u2019m…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":231,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[58,85],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-transformation","tag-alma-flor-ada","tag-halloween"],"yoast_head":"\nAt the Heart of Halloween - In Sweet Company<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/10\/at-the-heart-of-halloween.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"At the Heart of Halloween - In Sweet Company\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cWhat had the most impact on me (as a young child)\u2026was the trust (my grandparents) had in me …\u00a0 the trust they had in my soul.\u00a0They were celebrating that which existed in me that was independent of my years.\u201d —Alma Flor Ada,, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE I\u2019m…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/10\/at-the-heart-of-halloween.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"In Sweet Company\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-19T00:08:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Margaret Wolff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"At the Heart of Halloween - In Sweet Company","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/10\/at-the-heart-of-halloween.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"At the Heart of Halloween - In Sweet Company","og_description":"\u201cWhat had the most impact on me (as a young child)\u2026was the trust (my grandparents) had in me …\u00a0 the trust they had in my soul.\u00a0They were celebrating that which existed in me that was independent of my years.\u201d —Alma Flor Ada,, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE I\u2019m…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/10\/at-the-heart-of-halloween.html","og_site_name":"In Sweet Company","article_published_time":"2011-10-19T00:08:00+00:00","author":"Margaret Wolff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/10\/at-the-heart-of-halloween.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/10\/at-the-heart-of-halloween.html","name":"At the Heart of Halloween - In Sweet Company","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-10-19T00:08:00+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-19T00:08:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/#\/schema\/person\/9e1d77d12de19dd0d4fbc84d1f7fc52a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/10\/at-the-heart-of-halloween.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/10\/at-the-heart-of-halloween.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/10\/at-the-heart-of-halloween.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"At the Heart of Halloween"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/","name":"In Sweet Company","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Margaret Wolff","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/#\/schema\/person\/9e1d77d12de19dd0d4fbc84d1f7fc52a","name":"Margaret Wolff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/673\/67331f0571f27a0987e8cbfde3e832b4x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/673\/67331f0571f27a0987e8cbfde3e832b4x96.jpg","caption":"Margaret Wolff"},"description":"Margaret Wolff has a gift of luring people into becoming who they really are. She speaks and writes about things women care about: how to make our lives and our work be about what we value most; how to navigate challenge and change; how to live with integrity and grace, to look at error in ourselves and others in a forgiving way and view life as an invitation to transform ourselves into instruments for the Greater Good. \"I laughed, I cried, I was silent, I cheered. Most of all, I loved.\" Spoken by a woman at In Sweet Company Retreat, these words express what women experience when Margaret engages them in dynamic, soul-searching conversations about their lives. Margaret holds degrees in art therapy, psychosynthesis, and leadership and human behavior. Her work takes her to universities, to conferences and retreat settings, to living rooms and board rooms -- wherever women gather. Her articles, essays, and stories are featured in numerous magazines; her women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spirituality retreats are held throughout the U.S. Margaret\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s last book, In \"Sweet Company: Conversations With Extraordinary Women About Living a Spiritual Life\" (Jossey Bass), is a collection of intimate conversations she had with 14 famous women of various ages, faiths, and backgrounds about how their spirituality nourishes them and serves as a steady compass for their decision-making. Olympia Dukakis, Riane Eisler, Zainab Salbi, Margaret Wheatley, Sri Daya Mata, Lauren Artress, and other women artists, activists, religious leaders, and visionary thinkers shared their lives with her. You can too!","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/author\/mwolff"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions\/199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}