Well, that was fast, wasn’t it? We just had Christmas and then spring was here about two weeks ago. Then we blew some stuff up in July and here we are and it’s October again.

Yes. It’s October again. And no one is happier about it than I am. Except maybe Czarina Post.

There are two sorts of people in my life: those who’ve been around for a while and start sending me emails in July asking if I’ll be writing about October again this year and the new people who are confused and ask things like,”What’s the big deal about October? Are you off your meds or something?”

Yes, I’m writing about October again and no, no meds are needed, October or not. If you don’t get it, you don’t have to read any further. Go about your business. Nothing to see here.

But if you do get it, you’re one of us: you’re a lover of All Things October.

For the new kids, a brief history: in the fall of 1994, I found myself in a van with five other folks doing laps around Lake Michigan. Most of October was spent in Wisconsin, a place where October is perfect and beautiful, perhaps more perfect and beautiful than any other place on earth. The harvest, the changing color of leaves, an abundance of Chex Mix, all these things brought the six of us to a common place: a shared love of October and all her trappings.

We would decide and announce in grand fashion our October Thought for the Day each day. Those October Thoughts carried us through kind of a rough time. It’s not easy traveling nonstop with a bunch of strangers. There were cultural and philosophical divides that we had not yet figured out how to bridge but October brought us together in ways we didn’t expect and I, for one, still don’t quite understand.

The Thoughts were dormant for a few years after that until I joined the internet age and started sending out emails to Alison, a former van-dweller who had landed unceremoniously in Detroit. This whole mess has grown exponentially since then. At one point, I had a direct email list of upwards of eighty people, many of whom would then forward these silly emails on to friends and family all over the place.

I’ve finally given up on sending out emails. Everything is here. To get here, you have to have at least enough motivation to click on a Twitter/Facebook link. You have to want to be here.

What do you get for your trouble? Well, you get me rambling on about the wonder of October. October is a time of magic, of bounty, of color and flavor and scent. It is the boundary between the light of summer and the dark of winter. It is, as has been often said, when the veil between worlds is at its thinnest.

We will talk of simple things, of candy corn and spider rings and apple crisp. We will comment on literature and perhaps some world events. We may take a cursory look at some theology but won’t go too deep there unless one of you turns out to be an expert in October-centric theology. Anything is possible.

It is October, after all.

Oh, something I just learned? September 30 marked Sarah Winchester’s 149th wedding anniversary. We’ll talk about her later in the month. Lots of ground to cover here. Are you in?