It’s October, the time of year where the change of seasons feels like a web of magic all around us.  The veils are thin, so they say, an easy time for the otherworldly and unseen to reach into our everyday lives, be it gently, or with a spook.  At this time of year we celebrate the harvest, the ample bounty of what has grown, leaving what is not needed to return to the earth in a never ending cycle.  We honor our ancestors, the lives and spirits of those who carried our seed, one after the other, into this very moment.  We dance with the dead, we seek out the spooks, we enjoy a good fright.  We make room for the magical, the strange, the weird, and that which we do not understand -- that which scares us.

It is time to get ready for bed and your child has chosen that very moment to busily engage in building an elaborate structure of blocks.  You can feel the resistance forming as you tell them it is time for bed.  You brace for the showdown, loaded with negotiation tactics and threats (as a last resort - of course) but wonder for a moment: could it be easier?  Does it have to come down to a battle of wills?  Why can’t they just stop what they are doing and get ready for bed?!