Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

 I think I've always believed in ghosts. From monsters under the bed, to energies in particular spaces.  I've seen things. I've felt things. Some people believe it and some don't, and that's of no real concern to me. You can invalidate the existence of ghosts in the spiritual sense all you want; maybe it's hard to prove, for some people. Maybe it really can all be explained away, if you want it to be. Need it to be. But ghosts can exist in other forms as well. I think that most buildings are haunted. Not all in the traditional ghostly sense, but by the ghosts of what they once were, and memories left imprinted by the people who made them that way. As I walk through the corridors of an old hotel, one I knew long ago as a place where many prestigious events were held, the ghosts call loudly to me from every corner . The halls now house people on budgets; perhaps even those with nowhere else to go. The outside is overgrown; only a gazebo and an ornate gate to nowhe...

 I have been doing a lot of inner child healing work as of late. I won't get into all of that here, but, I very recently had a realization I thought was interesting and would like to share. I have so often struggled with the question How did you come to love Halloween so much? It's something that has just always simply been, for me, and I never really questioned it.  But, with recent things I've been thinking about and focusing on, I realized I may have an actual explanation as to how I initially latched onto Halloween so heavily. When I was a child, I absolutely loved holidays. All holidays, big or small. I just always wanted to celebrate.  I've realized recently that this was most likely due to the fact that my life was somewhat boring as a child. I was an only child, and a loner through and through. Though I was good at making my own fun, most of the time, everything in my life was pretty repetitive and routine.  But holidays were different. Holidays were the days...

Here we stand, at the edge of summer. It's that time of year again, when seasonal depression kicks in and the only consolation is the promise of Halloween soon hitting store shelves. This year, more retailers seem to be getting into the spirit of "Summerween", offering actual spooky themed summer merchandise, particularly bedding. I've seen sheets and pillows from TJMaxx , and blankets from Walmart . It's not a motif that I, personally, can really get into, but I'm happy that it exists. Nothing makes me happier than seeing the normalization of being spooky all year round. I'd like to think that soon it will be commonplace for a sheet ghost or skeleton to pop up on different holiday decor throughout the year. Valloween has already caught on, and Summerween seems to be the new thing, so why not Creepmas, Springoween, etc.? I have always said that for me, personally, Halloween is just my style, and is no different to me than it is for other people that decora...

I50 days until Halloween. It's ironic, in a way, that this last leg of the journey is the hardest for me.  I look out the window and see the blinding sun shining on the green leaves, as people walk past in tank tops and flip flops and the lake across the street glimmers in its beautiful, painful way, and I feel further now from Halloween than I did as I left Sleepy Hollow in the late morning hours on November 1st. 150 days, and it feels heavier, longer, than 364. Summer depression is not easy. Hearing about how "gorgeous" it is outside in reference to the weather that drains me physically and mentally, makes me feel more invisible and unimportant than I did in my high school years. The constant bleating of Stop rushing the seasons!   as soon as a pumpkin dares appear on a store shelf, when "rushing the seasons" is the only thing keeping me going, makes me feel like I don't matter. I realized, recently, that a person with summer SAD longing for fall, is no di...

  Many years ago, there was no 'Halloween Community', as we now know it.  There were only us, the children drifting like dry, wayward leaves in a cool breeze, never quite knowing where to land. We were the children whose friends looked at them strangely when we said our favorite holiday wasn't Christmas. We were the children who were called 'creepy' because we preferred ghost stories to fairy tales. If you were one of these children, one of us, you know. Me, personally? I was the little girl who cried when Halloween ended and never brightened at the mention of Christmas on the horizon. I was the little girl who pitched the idea of turning the Jack o' Lanterns around, hiding their scary faces, so that they could linger through Thanksgiving. I was the little girl who tried to start a leaf collection and then was devastated when they all turned brown.  I was the little girl who just wanted Halloween to stay. I was also the little girl who grew into perhaps a more a...

  It was the one gloomy day we really had all October. It had been unseasonably warm. So sunny. The atmosphere of Halloween, of   'spooky season', if you will, was nearly lost.  But that day was different. Good things loomed on the horizon for me. I was about to go off in celebration of my favorite holiday, in my favorite place. If I was lucky, which I was, I might complete the final leg of a particular piece of my healing journey on that trip. I don't know that I've ever been more excited. I called my mother that morning, as I took a walk around the block. Her birthday was the next day. We talked about everything, but mostly how happy I was.  It felt like magic. I came home and sat out in the yard, looking around as I always do, taking in one last glimpse of my home in October. It's always so strange to look at anything, any place, and think, ' Next time I'm here, it won't be October anymore.' I may as well say: Next time I'm here's I won...