Halloween, celebrated each year on October 31, is a mix of ancient Celtic practices, Catholic  and Roman religious rituals and European folk traditions that blended together over time to create the holiday we know today.

Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity and life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. Halloween has long been thought of as a day when the dead can return to the earth, and ancient Celts would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off these roaming ghosts. The Celtic holiday of Samhain, the Catholic Hallowmas period of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day and the Roman festival of Feralia all influenced the modern holiday of Halloween.

In the 19th century, Halloween began to lose its religious connotation, becoming a more secular community-based children’s holiday. Although the superstitions and beliefs surrounding Halloween may have evolved over the years, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people can still look forward to parades, costumes and sweet treats to usher in the winter season.

Forced positivity has always made me deeply uncomfortable. “Smile!” “Just look on the bright side!” “It’s not that bad.”

Unfortunately, when you are feeling badly, those apparently well-meaning phrases can feel like a jab in your side. Not only do you feel down, but now you feel guilty for feeling down!

For me, I appreciate practical approaches to feeling positive. One lesson I’ve learned over the years is finding bright spots, literally and figuratively.

Literally speaking, finding a bright spot means getting outdoors and being in the sunlight. Being outside is a natural mood lifter. A friend of mine swears by this simple technique: look up. Look up into the sky for a moment or two. He believes it “opens up your mind and frees your spirit. It reminds you that your problems are small in relation to the vastness of the sky.”

Figuratively, finding a bright spot means noticing the smallest of things that lifts your spirits. Today, I saw a mimosa tree in bloom. The pink was so vibrant and eye-catching. Staring at it for a moment was like looking at a work of art.

Or perhaps its a positive interaction, albeit brief, with a person throughout your day; like a cashier or a passerby who smiles. If you take that moment in, for all it’s worth, you’ll be surprised at how much power a simple and seemingly meaningless interaction holds.

So find some bright spots today. They aren’t hard to find - they’re everywhere. But more importantly, take one moment to recognize that it lifted your spirits, even slightly.

by Beth Mann

Tekapo, NZ - a village among the stars

Okay, I had a contest yesterday. I didn’t have the chance to post our Positive Quote Wednesday. So here you have it: Positive Quote Thursday.
I didn’t win the contest…at all! So today, admittedly self-involved, I’m posting quotes on losing. We’ve all been there, right?

A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.
Billie Jean King

A good balance of winning and losing is important. If you just win all the time, you won’t get anything out of it; having some tough losses can be really important.
Andrew Shue

A losing trade, I assure you, sir: literature is a drug.
George Borrow

About the only time losing is more fun than winning is when you’re fighting temptation.
Tom Wilson

As I said, I began losing confidence in my instincts, which is tough and very bad for an instinctive person.
Kim Novak

Bambi has a profound effect on children because it’s about losing your mother.
Christine Baranski

Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he’s losing; nobody wants you to quit when you’re ahead.
Jackie Robinson

Being a decathlete is like having ten girlfriends. You have to love them all, and you can’t afford losing one.
Daley Thompson

Being an only child and losing both my parents at an early age, I have found that the friends I have made over the years are the people who help me get through life, good times and bad.
Fannie Flagg

Bjorn was a different breed, I threw my best material at him, but he would never smile, but that added to the charm when he played me and Mac. We were going nuts and losing our mind and he was sitting back like he was on a Sunday stroll.
Jimmy Connors

Extremely strong, effective, tenacious, and powerful political networks can be built when you fight losing battles as well as when you win.
Patricia Ireland

For myself, losing is not coming second. It’s getting out of the water knowing you could have done better. For myself, I have won every race I’ve been in.

Ian Thorpe

I also think stress is related to control. When you’re in charge of your life, you tend to not care about losing control of things that don’t really matter like traffic jams.
Marilu Henner

I don’t gamble, because winning a hundred dollars doesn’t give me great pleasure. But losing a hundred dollars pisses me off.
Alex Trebek

I have no fear of losing my life - if I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it.
Steve Irwin