Orange

'Tis the season for being haunted, trick or treating into your late teens,the urban myths of razor blades in apples, launching eggs at the houses of the outcasts or curmudgeons in your neighborhood,remembering the drug store flame retardant costumes of yesteryear,smashing pumpkins on sticky sidewalks,wafting through the smells of pigskin and cider and doing the Monster Mash. Halloween is Friday....and the fun I used to have as an unruly teen running rampant with a pillow case full of Mounds, Mary Janes, Necco Wafers and unwrapped black licorice(complete with stray hairs) is gone.Long gone. I've transferred it all to my two year old son Hudson..who will be a shark this year. I don't think he even cares about how cool I will make his costume look..(bloody barbie leg and tin can strung from his "shark teeth")but he'll eventually appreciate the work I put into it as I did while my Dad made me up in the coolest homemade costumes in the entire northeast all those years ago.

It is fitting that the background color for my blog is Orange. It is a tribute to my sister who left us just two short months ago. It was her favorite color..for reasons that escape me right now.It is her presence..as I will wear her orange "Miracles are Happening " bracelets for the rest of my days..as I am reminded of our lifelong bond and the change of seasons...as I see orange everywhere now, not just around our beloved Halloween....it is noticed in an Orange swirl of leaves in the side yard in a tendril of wind..It is seen in the faded Orange lettering on my Orange amplification T-Shirt that I bought years before she fell ill but now wear whenever I am in a situation that may cast doubt or fear over me...I stop to see the blurry swatches of an orange sunset entwined in the blotted clouds on a Crisp fall day...I stop to notice the Orange hues in everything from strewn Hot Wheel Cars, to Juice in a morning glass to cat fur clusters on a hoodie. It is soothing. It warms and strengthens me. It is her presence..realized and applied to my thoughts,dreams and actions.
Orange is a combination of yellow and red..which now makes sense as to why it is symbolic of Meaghan..It is between the sunrise(yellow) and sunset(red) of life where we do our best work, our thinking and growing and nurturing.It is where we define who we are..It is not how much time we have between Sunrise and Sunset..it is what we do with it. Thanks again Meaghan....for another lesson. I will wear my Orange proud for the days I have left and always be reminded of you and what you did in between the "yellow" and the "red".