Meteors and coyotes kept me company through the phases of the Hunter’s Moon last month.  Two minutes away from sleeping suburban subdivisions, I watched and listened nightly as they played out their prescriptions.  The meteor showers arced diffusely down black velvet skies, leaving tracers of wheels within wheels, like the gears of a limitless cosmic clock.  The sense of time passing was serene and inevitable, and I felt right just being part of it.  When the moon waxed full five days before Halloween it stole the show, and the coyotes were most appreciative.  Their mystery is contagious.  No one really knows why they set up a howl for half a minute in the dead of night, but you don't have to know in order to feel the unchained freedom.  Nearby I discovered a road that began and ended nowhere and ran for less than half a mile, which is – surprise, surprise – why it bore the name Ghostley.

The rest of October was trick-or-treat weather, ablaze with color or dilute with rain and almost hourly scene changes.  Definitely a treat was Elm Creek, my favorite Three Rivers park, where I put in miles and miles of hiking, thinking, dreaming.  A place called the Golden Field was so tall with reeds that passing through it was like being dry cleaned head to toe.  I love the linen scent it leaves on my clothes.  Sometimes when I’ve walked the Stations of the Cross of my memories, I sit down in a meadow and just let the wind bring me whatever it will – fermenting apples, chill moisture off a lake, the warm smell of peat and dry leaves.  And, oh yes, I finished a book!

THE SHADOW SHOW came of age actually in November, after I had returned home one night about 2 a.m.  Endings have a way of sneaking up like that.  This one pleased me.  Now to market.  …  And speaking of endings, I fear my pet chicken“Venus” was hit by a car while eating chocolates.  Alas, too complicated to explain, but she is (was) fond of a confection known as Nipples of Venus, which quite naturally come in pairs.  Had I not eaten one of Venus’s Nipples, she would not have gone looking.  She was found nearly featherless, said remaining chocolate in her beak.  I like to think it was a happy way to go.  Much better than a Chicken Croak-ette [sic].  … Music likewise played a huge part of October, beginning with a Matchbox Twenty album and ending with the Eagle’s transcendent new release Long Road out of Eden.  When you hear the latter, you'll know that the magic has re-entered the building.  Simply put, the Eagles make everything I've heard since their last album seem like an intermission.  The old sound is there, but they've never stopped evolving.  Glenn Frey in particular has four or five haunting tracks, one of which the legendary band performed live on the Country Music Awards a couple weeks ago in a landmark performance.  And then there is the pure fun of “Somebody,” which captures the tone of “Witchy Woman” and the energy of “Smuggler’s Blues.”  Twenty new songs and a closer as poignant as “Desperado.” …  Musician/photographer Mark Manrique and his better half Karen paid me a visit, which was another highlight of the month with lots of laughs and sparkling conversation.  Not so funny are the four new photos below that Mark made, but I’m getting used to being an object of derision.  To counter Mark’s gallery, I’ve added a couple of photos of me before I got ugly.  What a cute kid!  And there is a photo of Jimmy Pond, age 10, as well.  Thanks for all the email about him after last month’s column.  If you’re reading this newsletter on my web site, there are no photos to see.  But you can get on the mailing list for free monthly newsletters, photos included, just by emailing mn333mn@earthlink.net.

Wherever you are, may your days be filled with the vitality and energy that come from being positive.  Here’s the link to this month’s column over on StorytellersUnplugged.com: THOMAS SULLIVAN: STAGE 3 SUFFOCATION & THE GODS OF CHROME AND NEON .  It’s about being different, and being different is one way to make life interesting.  Sometimes you have to step across a border or get out of sync with routines in order to reap that, but it’s always rewarding.  The other night, coming back late again, I passed a gas station two blocks from Wal-Mart and a pair of does scampered in front of me and ended up peering at me from behind the pumps.  We looked at each other as if to say, “What are you doing here?”  I laughed, and I swear they smiled back, because we were doing the same thing.  Like I said, you have to cross a border now and then to make life interesting…

Take care,

Sully

www.thomassullivanauthor.com