Where does October go when its time has passed?
Everyone has a home to retreat to when the party is over, don’t they?
I’ve always thought of October like an old friend, one I don’t get to see frequently throughout the year, and one who, sadly, has a tendency to leave without saying goodbye.
So many November mornings I woke up, trying to find the traces of my beloved, who’d just been there the night before. And, although certain things remained the same, the comfort of knowing that October was there was almost entirely gone, as if it never existed at all.
As the years have gone on, October’s exit has only become more abrupt, with the bully December trying to block out November, and memories of October, entirely.
But still, where does it go?
I’ve spent much of my life trying to find October’s home. If it can’t come to me, all year round, then why shouldn’t I be able to go to it?
I’ve found that October doesn’t retreat to one place. Maybe it’s cliche to say that it lives in our hearts, but it does. And if you have October in your heart, then you can find it in the physical world, anywhere.
October doesn’t simply stop existing. It doesn’t crawl back into its hole like the groundhog after its yearly appearance on February 2nd. It stays, always, if you know how to look for it.
Whenever there’s a spooky whisper to the wind, that is October reminding you that it’s watching over you. Whenever a dead leaf suddenly flutters to the ground, no matter how brittle and brown it may have become, that is October reminding you of what’s to come. The smell of a summer bonfire, the eerie stillness of snow, that odd change in the weather as winter shifts into spring…that is all October, calling you from a distance, hoping that you’ll always remember, and always believe.
The comforting thing about October is that, unlike people we may grow apart from in our lifetimes, it always comes back. But for those of us that need it most, whose lives are fed by that feeling, it is never far away, at all.
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