Life is a Spook Alley...

Halloween has always been one of the "Holidays"

that I have loved. As a small child, my mom used to make our
costumes. When I married my husband he wanted to
scare all the kids who came to our home for trunk or treat.
I knew this was a holiday we would
celebrate in a big way.
*
I remember tilting the pictures on the walls to be crooked.
 I would purposely not dust
and put fake cobwebs everywhere.
Then there were the sheets thrown over furniture,
and of course all the festive homemade decorations
throughout the house.
*
But probably the biggest Halloween memories have been
the spook alleys we have done as families, and
our annual Halloween party with Jake and Liz.
(tomorrow night is our party)
*
What is it about spook- alleys that get our attention over and over again.
*Were scared
*we don't know what's going to jump out at us
or what's hiding in the corner
*the only way out is to go through
*we tell ourselves it will only last a minute
*once we are through, we smile
with our heart beating extra beats.
and...we are ready to go again.
****
Life is like a spook-alley.
We never know what is lurking around the corner
or what is hiding behind us, over us or under us.
We don't know which people
may be disguised as friends and turn out to be our
enemies.
Whatever the horrendous, spook-alley situation we be in,
 what really matters is that we grow more into our true selves.
All the pain and suffering and fear
 will be taken away if we allow the savior into our
lives.
All we need to do is ask.
So when those brief bitter moments
creep into the spook alley of our mortality,
remember the Lord expects us to live our life fully
even the unexpected life.
By facing what lies around the corner
and learning to manage them- perhaps even conquer them
and becoming who we are meant to be.
*******
Who knew that we could
even find something spiritual
in spook- alleys?

ps. Thanks to Wendy Watson Nelson and Truman Madsen for shedding light
on this subject for me.