I heart seasons!

That is the t-shirt I need made for me.

I think my deep-seated love of seasons can be attributed to living in Southern California for 10 years. Christmas was hard that first year...so hard to touch that feeling of blustery comfort and joy when you are still able, for the most part, to wear shorts. And there was no amazing joy when spring hit because that first crocus you spied coming up out of the damp soil wasn’t there to announce the return of the sun and heat and bare arms.

But then I became a gardener. And I discovered subtle seasons. I began to see that, come spring, the hills and cliffs were painted purple as the desert ice plant came into bloom all at once. And that “freeway jasmine” would quickly follow on its heals...while the much more delicate Carolina jasmine would come later in the summer. I came to understand how to plant a garden so that you had color all year long, waiting and watching as each plant still kept time - even if California time was not its native time.

And I had the pleasure of working for a lady who DECORATED for the seasons. Not how my mamma would, putting out our school projects and a couple cherish pieces here and there, but like a set designer. Eventually this became my job too - building her seasonal still lifes. It wasn’t a big step from her house to my own house. Now, 10 years later, I have my own set of plastic bins for each season. And I drag them out and paint my house with the pretty things of each season.

But it goes deeper than just an adoration of pretty things. (My sister says I have A.D.O.S.O.D - attention deficit oooh shiney object disorder.) I worship the march of time. The cycle of life. Winter is hope. Spring is rebirth. Summer is joyful growth. Fall is gratitude. And I will “equal opportunity” celebrate both the pagan and Christian aspects of each. They are all faces of the same god, to me.

And nothing in my world should be static (except perhaps an ip address...bwahaha). As the seasons flow into one another outside my window, so do they inside my house and across my table tops. It is a meditation for me and has become essential to me.

Peace and Good Things now has enough space to invite you into this process. I couldn’t be happier about that! So we start off with Halloween. Yes, I enjoy my glittery-in-the-moonlight skulls and Edward Gorey-ish spiders. But I also take the time to honor my ancestors, my loved ones who have left the world I currently reside in and gone on to another. I weave remembrances of them into my still lifes and invite their energy to visit me. And I celebrate magic...because, honestly, I believe in it. (I believe in Santa Claus too!)

Whether you “believe” or not, I invite you to join us. Because what prayer and meditation are, in their essence, is a directing of the mind, heart and spirit; a turning of your gaze to a desired perspective.

See all of our Halloween decor here!