October has always been a magical time for me, beginning with my birthday on October 4, then wandering through Vermont’s vibrant fall foliage, before celebrating Halloween. When I led Wonder & Wisdom, there was as much preparation for Halloween as there was for the December holidays! I was the Scary Fairy Godmother.
My costume consisted of a white nightgown with pale blue and green snowflakes embroidered around the neckline and sleeves, an old choir robe rope belt, “diamond” earrings, my grandmother’s rhinestone tiara (which always gave me a headache), face glitter, white gloves, and my grandmothers silver evening bag filled with biodegradable fairy dust (millet). I carried a magic wand made of an old telescoping antenna topped with a star cut from an aluminum foil pie plate.
The Scary Fairy Godmother was only scary to adults who didn’t know her.
The veil between worlds feels thin in October. On the night of October 9, the clouds parted briefly to reveal a full Hunter’s Moon. I was sitting in bed writing in my gratitude journal, when my attention wandered to a good friend in Greensboro. Judy had been in hospice care for several months. I had a sense that I was sitting with her as she was dying. The next morning, I received word of her passing just before midnight, one week before her 77th birthday and three weeks before Halloween, I think Judy’s favorite holiday.
October 10 was Indigenous People’s Day. I knew children were in the woods building tiny fairy houses with found objects from nature—no store-bought materials allowed. The kids were learning about housing and ecology while playing with the mystery and magic of the Spirit World.
I just finished reading Stealing Benefacio’s Roses: A Mayan Epic by Martín Prechtel, which has been on my bookshelf for 20 years. Ancient stories and the Village Heart are worth saving. We are in the process of conserving land, which was once inhabited by the Abenaki. As many indigenous people do, the Abenaki see the Great Spirit in Nature.
I woke to our first hard frost on October 11, brilliant orange leaves against a bright blue sky. I am sure that the fairies were dancing in delight, not fright!
If you should meet a scary fairy, ask her for her story. It’s a simple trick that will earn you a real treat. She may be your Godmother!