Spooks and Candies

I like giving kids candy.  No, I'm not luring young children for evil purposes; I'm enjoying the experience of giving a little joy to the trick-or-treaters who came to our home this Halloween evening.  What could be more fun than making children happy?

We don't usually see as many of those brightly-costumed candy-seekers as we did years ago when we lived in town.  Our country mile is a little too remote for most of them to find us and we are the only home on our road that welcomes this Halloween activity.  

I even made a point of scheduling my work day to end earlier than usual, so that I could be home in time to greet the children, candy bowl in hand.  Too often, October 31 falls on a day when I have to work late and the fun is all over by the time I get home.

Here's a cheerful group that were happy to pose for a picture, which I'll use for the news column that I write weekly for our local newspaper.

This year only 13 trick-or-treaters found us and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting every one.  Kate pointed out that 13 is not only a significantly spooky number but it's also 31 backwards.  Reverse spooky is better than straightforward spooky, I guess!

Hope your Halloween was as enjoyable as mine.

Connections and Developments

A few days ago I posted about the experience of receiving an award from the Canadian Mental Health Association for a column I write regularly for my local newspaper.  The column is about explaining mental health, how to cope as well as possible when it fails us, and the need for continuing efforts to eradicate the many stigma that only add to the challenge of living with a mental illness.

As though receiving an award weren't exciting enough, I've been in contact over the last few days with the Director of Development of the Canadian Mental Health Association, who wants to partner with me to place the column in more newspapers across the province.  She's a little more experienced in the publishing realm than I am, so working with her is an exciting, educational, and very useful experience for me. 

And it will keep my nose to the writing grindstone, which is always good for me.  Sometimes I have more ideas than I can possibly work with at once and often that  means I end up accomplishing very little.  Now I have a focus for my writing energies for the next few weeks as we explore together to see how this will work out.  And who knows where it all might lead?  I certainly had no idea when I pitched the column five years ago to the late editor of the paper I'm presently writing for that it would lead me to the developments that are unfolding right now.

To think that I was reluctant to attend the award presentation!  I didn't think that merely writing a column qualified me as a "Hero of Mental Health."  I still think that a lot of the fuss was a little overboard but, as "the squire" keeps pointing out to me, I'm certainly glad I went!

Heroism

Apparently I am a hero.  At least, I qualify according to the definition offered by the Canadian Mental Health Association at their annual Heroes of Mental Health awards luncheon.

In addition to some concerns about questionable grammar in their definition, I feel that my achievement (writing a weekly column on mental health for five years) doesn't necessarily imply noble qualities.

But it is definitely nice to be recognized and it's especially nice to think that there's even more attention drawn to the cause.  I write the column because I believe that it's time we demystify and destigmatize mental health issues.  And the best way to do that, at least the best way that corresponded with my talents, seemed to be to write a column for our local newspaper.  

In the column, "Let's Talk Mental Health," I offer some straight talk and a healthy dose of psycho-education about mental health, mental illness, and the crippling stigma that still exist and keep many people from seeking help when they need it.

Here, I'm pictured with some of the other "Heroes of Mental Health" who received awards that day in different categories.  Some told stories of bravery and courage in their recovery process and at least one shared the deep impact that someone else's mental illness had on her childhood  and how it motivated her now to support local iniatives for people in recovery.  I think they are the true heroes of mental health, the people who are impacted by it daily and still work to build as good a life for themselves and others as they can despite it.

Thanksgiving

Ahh, October ... that mellow, bittersweet month that capriciously brings warm, sunny days; wet, stormy weather (like this evening); or howling blizzards (think October 4, 2012).

Right now, I'm grateful that October has been gentle so far and very generous with panoramas of autumn beauty everywhere I go, but especially here on my country mile.

My house smells of warm pumpkin bread and other goodies for Thanksgiving; my family are all home, cozy, and safe; everyone has a job and enough of the necessities of life ... what more could I need?

Actually, there was one more important thing on my list of needs and I just learned I can be thankful for that, too.  One of my favourite people, my nephew Eric, had a cycling accident a few days ago and wound up in the hospital with serious injuries.  I've been praying for his complete recovery and the last message from my brother, his Dad, says that Eric is well on the way to that recovery and might even be released from hospital in time for Thanksgiving.

And so, on Thanksgiving Day, surrounded by my children and grandchildren and lots of delicious food, I will be truly thankful (and I'll keep up the prayers for Eric until I hear he's 100% again).

Happy Thanksgiving to all my faithful readers and all my friends.