Season of Shadows Blog

Today’s entry serves as my own inner inspirational dialogue regarding my dreams for Season of Shadows. Whether you have Halloween aspirations like mine (to pursue my vision of Halloween while making a generous living from this site and giving back to others) or not, I believe the following is applicable toward any goal.

While Season of Shadows, on the surface, is all about Halloween (and ghosts); underneath it’s a turbocharged engine fueled by ever expanding dreams. You see, I’m the type of person who still believes in Santa Claus. Scratch that. I’m the type of person who knows Santa Claus exists – not the man in the red suit, but the notion — the spirit and the essence.

That very essence is the representation of dreams and the unwavering faith we had as children. We didn’t give up on our dreams because they were impossible. Nothing is impossible. Instead, we gave up on them because we allowed someone else to convince us they were unachievable. I say to hell with that noise! Without dreams (no matter what they consist of) and without the white hot desire to take action toward achieving them; in the process never taking no for an answer, life is an empty shell.

Have you ever wanted to accomplish something so badly you could taste it? But even the imagined taste wasn’t the end of it? After swallowing the object of your desire, its succulent juices ooze out through every pore in your body and you begin to reek of your aspirations. Your skin burns like fire from the intensity of your desire laden sweat and you are inspired into doing whatever is necessary to bring it to fruition. In my opinion, that’s the type of inflamed passion required to accomplish your dreams.

There must be an impetus to follow your dreams wherever they may lead (minus self-imposed conditions); down any fear laden tunnel, over every uncomfortable bridge and through all avenues of uneasiness. Passion must be accompanied by ignoring fear and pressing on beyond your comfort zones.

You are an unstoppable force when you combine inflamed passion with definitiveness; a rock-solid, unwavering belief in your self; the understanding that sacrifices must be made; the power of giving back and tenacious, persistent action.

If you want it, you have to go after it again, and again and again and again. Failure is never an option! As for how to deal with those who have lost the belief in themselves and the belief in achieving their own dreams: lead by your own example and never, ever let their attitude or behavior influence you.

I find the following quotes (somewhat paraphrased) to be extremely inspirational:

Keenen Ivory Wayans, from the HBO documentary ‘The Blacklist’: “If you make certain you have something to fall back on while simultaneously working on your dreams – you’re going to fall.”

Richard Branson: “If you’re not doing what you love [and what you’re passionate about], you should not be doing it.”

Russell Simmons: “The only reason dreams are never achieved is because people give up — plain and simple.”

Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.”

Hernando Cortez: “Burn the boats!” The historic conqueror inspired his troops to win the battle (on “enemy” soil) by burning their own ships. If they wanted to get home, they had to obtain the enemies’ boats. Guess what? They won the battle. What excuses do we use to keep us afloat, but apart from achieving our dreams?

The following two-part video contains a great deal of truth and inspiration. I watch it at least once a week.

Video source: You Tube user PrimeauProductions

I find that the more emotionally attached we are to an event; the more prone our senses are to storing it in a vivid manner. The sense of smell is perhaps one of the strongest in this regard. The following post includes personal encounters with five of my favorite Halloween aromas, all based on specific events and written in the present tense. You may be surprised to find I don’t include traditional Halloween scents such as pumpkin spice, black licorice, etc. While I can appreciate many traditional Halloween smells, I tend to have more obscure, eclectic tastes when it comes to my fall favorites.

1. Singed jack-o-lantern innards: The flickering light is conspicuously absent from one of the pumpkins. Upon lifting the lid, I find that the candle was placed too close to the jack-o-lantern’s moist walls. The dampness extinguished the flame. However, the burning candle lasted long enough to char some pumpkin flesh. As I peer down the chimney and into the belly of the gourd, the toasty scent immediately engulfs my nostrils.

2. The bottom of the candy bowl: Under the porch’s black lights, I reach into the humongous bowl; my knuckles graze the bottom – signifying the last pieces of candy are being removed. As the trick-or-treaters make their way back down the drive, I’m overpowered by a residual mixture of Sixlets, Snickers and M&M’s. The trio has been marinating in the bowl for days, just waiting by the front door. Their sweet, chocolaty scent saturated the plastic container and is now being released into the chilly autumn air.

3. Hot glue and cornstalks: It’s 3 AM and I’m working outdoors by the light of a precariously perched flood lamp; adding the finishing touches to my haunt’s cornstalk display. Three hundred stalks are secured in place; each one is attached with a variety of materials. The tip of the hot glue gun, partially obscured by shadows, repeatedly sears the stalks; creating a smoky aroma of fall harvest.

4. A Halloween shop: As I walk through the doors, I’m immediately taken back to my childhood where rubber bands ruled the world of kids’ costumes and masks. The thick scent of plastic and foam filled latex, with just a hint of ozone (emanating from mechanized props), circulates throughout the store.

5. Damp leaves and overturned earth: Halloween at dusk — ten bags of leaves have been spread throughout the yard haunt’s graveyard and I’m still left with bare spots. Bagged over a week ago, the leaves are ripe from condensation and many an afternoon of warm temperatures. As I drive to the river in search of more of their fallen comrades, the smell lingers on my hands and wafts up from the steering wheel. Time is short. I hurriedly bag as many leaves as possible. With the sun rapidly disappearing behind the cottonwood trees, I’m now frantically grabbing for all I’m worth. The deeper I dig, the more prominent that ripe, musky smell becomes, but this time it’s accompanied by a woody scent and fresh earth.

I hope you enjoyed this list. I’ll be continuing with more of my favorite Halloween scents in a future post. Come to think of it, I really should turn some of these into fragrances. Who wouldn’t want to use cologne that smelled like hot glue and cornstalks?