There’s a goblin at my window,
A monster by my door.
The pumpkin at my table
Keeps on smiling more and more.
There’s a ghost who haunts my bedroom,
A witch whose face is green.
They used to be my family,
Till they dressed for Halloween.
~Sandra Liatsos

Bats and hats and spooky cats, oh no!  Ghosties, goblins, and long-leggedy beasties, oh no!  Jack o’ Lanterns, witches, and billowing brews, oh no!  What could it be?!  ‘Tis halloween!  When we were children, my sisters and I would think about how we wanted to dress up for Halloween weeks ahead of time.  As we came up with our ideas, mom would either make or help us put together the costumes we had envisioned.  Then on Halloween, readied and excited, we’d go out trick or treating all over our neighborhood before heading to the school carnival where we’d first get our fortunes told by a gypsy with a crystal ball.  Afterwards we’d bob for fresh apples and move from booth to booth while devouring caramel apples, popcorn balls, or handfuls of candy corn.  However before the “bewitching hour” when, as they say, all the truly scary things roamed, we’d scurry back home with our newly gained “bounty” in tow.  Once there we’d paw through all our “treats” until bedtime when a spooky tale might be told or retold.  Oh what fun it was back then for a child on the eventide of All Hallow’s Day!  And what a safer, simpler world it seemed to be!

To look backward for a while is
to refresh the eye,
to restore it,
and to render it the more fit
for its prime function of looking forward.
~Margaret Fairless Barber

But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith (in the Lord) and love.  He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we long to see you.  ~1 Thessalonians 3:6  ✝