Grumpy hummingbird in a local cemetery. Appropriate.

This is the time of year when it’s dark when we leave the house and just about dark when we arrive home. Very little sun to be seen unless we make a concerted effort to get outside on breaks (and if it’s not raining). So thoughts turn inwards. It’s an understandable time for the development of All Hallows Eve (Halloween), Samhain, Day of the Dead. Also, we might be coming down from yesterday’s overbought-for-the-trick-or-treaters sugar high. And of course the election is next week. Yep.

For truly wallowing in the experience, provoking some thought, and then moving on better for it, I recommend:

Listening to Leonard Cohen’s new album, You Want it Darker. He’s 82 and acknowledges he’s winding down but seems to be at peace with that. Haven’t formed an opinion of the album yet beyond being glad that it exists. His voice, never strong, has lost some of what was there. Doesn’t matter.

Reading appropriate poetry such as T.S. Eliot’s “Animula.”

Carving out time for the full length read, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty.

Remembering both Tempus fugit and Carpe diem.

Not one item above is morbid. Accepting, moving on, and DOING SOMETHING with the time we have. Yes.