Next week is Halloween. Halloween used to be my favorite holiday. There was something about the concept of getting to play a character for a day, to be someone completely not me, that appealed to me. Maybe I should have tried acting as a career……

But now Halloween just means we are entering a part of the year filled with tragic memories. Halloween, 2005, AKA “Trick or Trunk”. The remaining residents along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi tried to put the best face on a holiday tradition, trick or treating, when there were no houses left to visit. They would gather in parking lots, open the trunks of the cars to access bags of candy, and kids in costumes would go car-to-car instead of door-to-door. A community tailgate for candy, if you will. Brave on the face of it, attempting to bring normalcy to kids who could not understand the depth of the tragedy around them. But a sad reminder of how much had been lost during Hurricane Katrina.

And Christmas, 1998. Being a volunteer firefighter on the fireground where a father and 3 children didn’t survive to have any more holidays. It was that helpless feeling, watching the mother and her only surviving child cry on the sidewalk at 3 am, that brought me to leave the department. I went home that Christmas morning and hugged my children with the knowledge there may never be another chance to express my love. We all must remember that.

And January 13, the anniversary of my own son’s death in a house fire. Such a bright soul, love incarnate as we said at the time, who only demonstrated his joy and love for 8 short months and never knew what a holiday was. Still, he taught me the most important thing about life: every day is the most important one. Today is all we truly have. The ‘holiday spirit’ should be felt and expressed every moment, not just at a certain time of year, or on a particular day. Please touch the lives around you at every opportunity no matter what the calendar says. Be generous all year ‘round, not just at Christmas. Be thankful for what you have and what you have achieved. Not everyone is as lucky as you, my friend.