It is the last day of October. It is Halloween, and it is the final day of daylight saving time.
While we are sleeping tonight…
…well, while I am sleeping and some of you are stumbling home from Halloween costume parties, our clocks will turn back an hour.
All this really does is rearrange the lightness and darkness in our days.
It doesn't give us another hour of life. It simply moves the daylight around.
I have been thinking about that hour and the new arrangement we will be living with for the next 133 days.
We won't move our clocks forward again until March 14th, 2027. There is quite a bit on the calendar between now and then.
We start with an opportunity to rearrange our government at the ballot box this coming Tuesday. Then comes Armistice Day, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and the arrival of 2027.
And, for some of us, Dry January.
That is a lot of living to squeeze into 133 days, but I have been thinking that these next four and a half months might also give us an opportunity to rearrange some of the darkness and lightness in our own lives.
I have been calling it wintering these last few years. A time to work on both my heart and my soul. A time to take inventory of what I have done, what I have lost, what I have learned, and what I still want to accomplish. A time to figure out where the fuck John Shepley fits into this whole scheme of things.
… And believe me, that remains a work in progress.
I am not going to chalk out a list of suggestions or some grand master plan for how we should all go about wintering. We each have our own ways of cleansing, healing, reflecting, and finding a little peace.
Some of us need solitude.
Some need company.
Some need forgiveness.
Some of us simply need to forgive ourselves.
I am going to make one recommendation.
Just one.
Buy new lightbulbs!
I have got these lightbulbs around my home that brighten and dim with a remote control. They change colors, moods, and the whole atmosphere of a room. Tonight I am going orange for Halloween.
The next few weeks, in particular, are going to be increasingly dark. The sun will disappear earlier, the evenings will stretch longer, and winter will begin settling in around us.
We can't do much about the darkness outside our windows, but we can do something about the light inside our homes.
And maybe, just maybe, that is a pretty good place to start.
Buy new lightbulbs!
