Gratitude Friday 10 10 25 October

Even if you read this sporadically you probably know I live quotes. They reveal a constancy in the human condition across written history. The written word can capture the essence of who and what we are. Our thoughts and feelings that are timeless through the millennia. Readers may also know I love October. If I had to pick a favorite month of the year, there would be no close second to October. 

“There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir: We must rise and follow her, When from every hill of flame She calls, and calls each vagabond by name.” ― William Bliss

“October knew, of course, that the action of turning a page, of ending a chapter or shutting a book, did not end the tale. Having admitted that, he would also avow that happy endings were never difficult to find: "It is simply a matter," he explained to April, "of finding a sunny place in a garden, where the light is golden and the grass is soft; somewhere to rest, to stop reading, and to be content.” ― Neil Gaiman

“the thing with October is, I think, it somehow gets in your very blood. Unapologetically. Almost ruthlessly.” ― Anne Sexton

“There is a sweetness to the month of October and season fall in general that brings our attention homeward and inward. Could it be the trees going to sleep, cool dry temperatures that delight our morning or daylight hours slipping way causing our focus to converge on how short and fragile life really is. All these things conspire to usher in a season of reflection on relationships and the things that give our lives meaning. What a great loss to our human experience should we ignore or squander this the autumn of our lives. Embrace it, feel it, study it, it is indeed one of God’s great gifts to us.” ― Michael Marcel, Sr.

“October is a fine and dangerous season in America. It is dry and cool and the land is wild with red and gold and crimson, and all the lassitudes of August have seeped out of your blood, and you are full of ambition. It is a wonderful time to begin anything at all. You go to college, and every course in the catalogue looks wonderful. The names of the subjects all seem to lay open the way to a new world. Your arms are full of new, clean notebooks, waiting to be filled. You pass the doors of the library, and the smell of thousands of well-kept books makes your head swim with a clean and subtle pleasure.” ― Thomas Merton

“The ripe, the golden month has come again, and in Virginia the chinkapins are falling. Frost sharps the middle music of the seasons, and all things living on the earth turn home again... the fields are cut, the granaries are full, the bins are loaded to the brim with fatness, and from the cider-press the rich brown oozings of the York Imperials run. The bee bores to the belly of the grape, the fly gets old and fat and blue, he buzzes loud, crawls slow, creeps heavily to death on sill and ceiling, the sun goes down in blood and pollen across the bronzed and mown fields of the old October.” ― Thomas Wolfe

“October sunshine bathed the park with such a melting light that it had the dimmed impressive look of a landscape by an old master.” ― Elizabeth Enright

“He loved October. Had always loved it. There was something sad and beautiful about it - the ending and beginning of things.” ― Jacqueline Woodson

“The wind outside nested in each tree, prowled the sidewalks in invisible treads like unseen cats.

Tom Skelton shivered. Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows' Eve. Everything seemed cut from soft black velvet or gold or orange velvet. Smoke panted up out of a thousand chimneys like the plumes of funeral parades. From kitchen windows drifted two pumpkin smells: gourds being cut, pies being baked.” ― Ray Bradbury

So we are entering the depths of October 2025. What will it hold for us? I do not know, but what I do know is October is a special month. I also know that in life, come what may we should cherish the moments. I am grateful to experience a 60^th October.

What are you grateful for today?