October is Scary & Not Because of Halloween

While I was walking the other day (when I do my best thinking, by the way), it occurred to me that October is a VERY scary month. Yes, of course, it’s Halloween, originally a time for remembering the dead  “using  humor and ridicule to confront the power of death,” according to Wikipedia.

But I’m talking about the REAL scary stuff – life cycle stuff. Life-changing stuff.

Here’s a quick list of some of  my October-based life events while on this earth:

• October 4, 1974 – Become a Bat Mitzvah –  leading our congregation of several hundred in prayers as my knees buckled beneath me.
• October, 1985 – Move to Germany – knowing only my boss (whom I’d met 2 weeks prior) and no German, I cried saying good-bye to my family, and leaving the US for the first time in my life to live on my own, also for the first time in my life.
• October 16, 1994 – Get married – entering the marital state, need I say more?
• October 1, 1999 – Start working at Mariner – resuscitating my high-tech career and I’m still here! (But frankly, I’m not sure who was more scared – me or the guys who hired me!)
• October 1, 2014 – Sell my house of 18+ yeas and move – beginning my life again after my separation (which BTW, is way scarier than the marriage thing).

That’s some pretty scary s#%@!

I wonder what it is about fall that sparks these dramatic changes in my circumstances.

Do you have a time of the year when you are more likely to shift gears? I’d really like to know.