Katherine Nichols Author

If you live in the South, you already know October is one of the most mercurial months of the year. Mornings require long sleeves and a heavy sweater. By early afternoon, you’ve ditched the sweater. A few hours later you roll up your sleeves and wish you hadn’t boxed up your shorts.

October is also the month when we release the pumpkin. People salivate for a pumpkin latte, and pumpkin pie is king. The tasty gourd is everywhere: butter, almonds, rolls, Cheerios, and Pop Tarts. There’s even pumpkin moonshine and protein powder. For the canine members of the family, Greenies makes a pumpkin spice treat.

Our heads start spinning as thoughts of Thanksgiving dinners crash into Christmas shopping anxiety. It’s hard to stay focused on the here and now.

I searched for deep quotes on how to achieve this state of mind. Philosophers, activists, writers–they all had something to say on the subject. But the quote that said it all for me came from Sheryl Crow.

One of the great exercises you can do is to stop and acknowledge the colors around you… If you’re constantly distracting yourself, then you’re never really experiencing anything fully. It can cause you to feel like you have no center, like nothing is grounding you.

October blazes with color. If we stop to take a moment to appreciate it, we open ourselves to all the things that keep us grounded.

In this month of constant change and pumpkin overload, what grounds you? Bonfires with friends? Saturdays at the soccer fields? Reading a good book? Or seeing your grandson grinning in the pumpkin patch?