Let’s Take a Moment

Let’s Take a Moment, for Halloween, for All Saints’ Day, and for ourselves….

Halloween or All Hallows’ Eve, aka All Saints’ Eve, is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October. It is the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints’ Day, which is a Christian solemnity celebrated in honour of all the saints of the church, whether they are known or unknown.  For many, it has become a day for mostly for kids, but many ‘celebrate’ this day.  

For the kids or those young at heart, here are ten safety tips for a safe and fun Halloween:

1. Children should be accompanied by an adult.
2. Children should wear clothing that can easily be seen at night. Retro- reflective materials are best.
3. Children should trick or treat in one well-known area and not wander into unknown neighborhoods.
4. All candy should be inspected by an adult to make sure that no one has tampered with it. If it looks suspicious, the police should be contacted.
5. Children should avoid stray animals.
6. Children should wear masks that do not interfere with vision. Better yet, they can avoid masks by wearing makeup.
7. Children should watch for moving vehicles when crossing streets.
8. Costumes should be short enough that the child will not trip.
9. Trick or treaters should dress appropriately for the weather and carry a flashlight.
10. For extra safety, organize a Halloween party for children in your neighbourhood.

For those that would like something a little more serious to think about, here is a message that was shared at the beginning of Open Door a couple of weeks back. What happens at Open Door stays at Open Door, but as this message came from the outside, I thought it was appropriate to share on the eve of All Saints’ Day. It is called Forgiving Reality and Forgiving Ourselves:

Dr. Edith Eger was just 16 years old when she was taken to Auschwitz with her family. She lost her mother and father to the gas chambers the very day they arrived, and she survived with the help and companionship of her sister. Decades later, when she began a university education in the United States, a young man handed her a copy of Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. She reflects that:

[Frankl] is speaking to me. He is speaking for me. . . . I read this, which is at the very heart of Frankl’s teaching: Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way 

Each moment is a choice. No matter how frustrating or boring or constraining or painful or oppressive our experience, we can always choose how we respond. And I finally begin to understand that I, too, have a choice. This realization will change my life.

In time Viktor Frankl and Edith Eger developed a friendship and he mentored her as she became a therapist, specializing in treating those suffering from PTSD. At one point, Dr. Eger was invited to return to teach in Germany, where she spent time at both a former mountain retreat of the Nazis, and the labor camp where she was held. Here she reflects on her choice to forgive Reality by forgiving herself:

The choice to accept myself as I am: human, imperfect. And the choice to be responsible for my own happiness. To forgive my flaws and reclaim my innocence. To stop asking why I deserved to survive. To function as well as I can, to commit myself to serve others, to do everything in my power to honor my parents, to see to it that they did not die in vain. To do my best, in my limited capacity, so future generations don’t experience what I did. To be useful, to be used up, to survive and to thrive so I can use every moment to make the world a better place. And to finally, finally stop running from the past. To do everything possible to redeem it, and then let it go. I can make the choice that all of us can make. I can’t ever change the past. But there is a life I can save: It is mine. The one I am living right now, this precious moment. . .

To forgive my flaws and reclaim my innocence

And to the vast campus of death that consumed my parents and so very many others, to the classroom of horror that still had something sacred to teach me about how to live—that I was victimized but I’m not a victim, that I was hurt but not broken, that the soul never dies, that meaning and purpose can come from deep in the heart of what hurts us the most—I utter my final words. Goodbye, I say. And, Thank you. Thank you for life, and for the ability to finally accept the life that is.

Thank you for life, and for the ability to finally accept the life that is.

As we party for Halloween and enter the month of November let us remember. Remember and be grateful. For what we have, for what we have shared, and for what we can share.

Have a safe Halloween and a safe All Saints’ Day…

Lino Matteo ©™

Twitter @Lino_Matteo