"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." So says Anne of Green Gables, so says me. October does everything best. But here are some less obvious observations I've had this October.
Social media fast—I did Pres. Nelson's social media fast challenge. Mostly. I only did it seven days instead of 10, but I figured that was enough. And rather than make me realize something profound about how social media was ruining my life, seven days without it made me more grateful for it. I am connected to far more people than I would be without social media—going without it made me feel more isolated, if anything—not to mention it's a handy tool for keeping tabs on people I don't see very much and keeping me up to date on what's going on in the world. It's such a universal way of communicating now that sometimes it's the only way I can get updates about family events, ward happenings, etc. And I missed being able to scroll through Twitter when I needed to numb my brain—that's been a super handy trick when I need a quick break from editing or when my thoughts are racing at night when I should be sleeping.
I enjoyed the break from all the negativity—especially on Twitter—and I'm going to be more mindful about staying off social media when I should be focusing on what's going on around me. But overall, going cold turkey for that long was an unnecessary nuisance.
2018 spooky read—For the last few years, I've read a spooky book in October. I need challenges like this to get me outside my reading comfort zone occasionally. I don't enjoy horror, but I loved 11/22/63 so much that I had to read some more Stephen King. So I chose one of the classics of the horror genre: The Shining. I was prepared to be jumping at shadows all the time and to have nightmares every night—but the book really didn't scare me that much.
I mean, yes, it's a freaky and disturbing book and it deserves its spot as one of the premier horror novels of all time, but I couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to buy that a haunted hotel could make you go crazy or that hedges could come to life and attack you. I can put myself in any fantasy story, memoir, contemporary novel—basically any other genre—but in horror, apparently I can't do that enough to relate in any meaningful way. And since I don't find horror tropes entertaining or educational—the top two reasons I read—this book didn't have much to offer me.
I still don't think I could handle the movie, though, unless I went into it with the intention of mocking the absurdity. It's a lot harder to get disturbing images out of your brain if you actually have to see them. And the music! Horror is vastly more effective with a suspenseful soundtrack.
Working from home—I've started working from home one day a week because I moved into the part of Utah that gets the worst traffic in the entire state. (In my totally unbiased, rational opinion. Redwood Road is of the devil.) The older I get the more I feel like the 9-to-5 office life is slowly sucking the life out of me, so getting one weekday away from that makes me feel like I have a little more control over the way I live. I'll probably be stuck in office culture for another 35 years or so, so I'm grateful to have wrangled a little bit of flexibility out of it.
Ask and you may receive—I'm not the inquisitive type. Not if it means physically asking someone a question. Nor am I the type to seek out help from others. I'd rather suffer in silence until I explode. But recent experiences have made me realize that if you ask for something, you just might get it. Opening up, even just a little, doesn't necessarily mean you'll be rejected or ignored or seen as weak. Mind blown.
