SPOOKY SEASON Y’ALL

DISCLAIMER: I love Halloween. And yes I am also a born again Christian. If you are also a Christian, but you are not a Halloween person, this post is probably not for you. (Especially if you are going to feel the need to comment something about how I’m evil for liking the “devils holiday” and need to repent or something. Just do us all a favor and just stop reading now. Halloween is not for everyone, but it is for me. I enjoy it and it has no evil or demonic hold over me, nor will it over my family. I mean this with all the love and respect I can muster. You are not weak in your faith because you don’t like Halloween things…and on the opposite end neither am I because I do (nor am I letting demons into my life). Thank youuuu!

I can finally say it’s spooky season! Halloween is my ultimate favorite time of year. I love fall as a whole, but specifically spooky season just warms…er…chills I suppose, my little spooky heart. Ghosts, vampires, mysterious haunted houses, old school witches huts with a large, black cauldron in a fireplace and old bottles around saying things like “rats tails” and “bats wings”. I love horror movies, walking around cemeteries (specifically really, really old onessss), and (I knowwww I’m basic) pumpkin spice everything. There are currently pumpkin spice bagels AND pumpkin spice English muffins sitting in my fridge. And pumpkin spice coffee. And pumpkin spice syrup and sauce. I’m obsessed OK?! I have all the stuff to make my own ultimate pumpkin spice latte but instead I am sitting in a local coffee shop drinking an Apple Pie Chai latte. It is absolutely delicious.

ANYHOO. I remember being little and watching something scary or spooky with my dad, and I don’t remember what I asked him about scary movies…but I remember his answer like it was yesterday. “It’s all pretend and it’s just for fun!” That stuck with me. From then on, growing up I realized (for the most part) it is all just fun. I enjoy the chills and I enjoy the creepy feeling of watching a horror movie. Also within the last year or so I have gotten into horror books. I HIGHLY recommend Darcy Coates! Her books are wonderfully spooky and, so far, all have been very clean (no NSFW stuff and not even any cussing really). I have several of her books I’ve already read and many more that I have on my TBR shelf.

But, I do have my limits. I usually stay away from most demonic possession movies, and movies that go too far into gross and disturbing to the point it’s just…wrong. I also LOVE true crime and love documentaries and podcasts…but I have not and will not watch the Dahmer mini series on Netflix, solely for the fact that I feel like having someone go into the mindset of someone that psychopathic and real. Re-enacting these awful crimes for money just feels so wrong and honestly disrespectful to the victims. I can get the idea perfectly fine watching a documentary or listening to a good podcast. Some actors have a hard enough time playing fictional villians, I don’t even want to think about playing someone that was actually that way in real life. (And in terms of fictional characters/villians based on real people, that is usually ok as the character is based or inspired by that person, and is not portraying the actual person if that makes sense? Maybe not but that’s how I feel about it so there.)

Sometimes I feel like I’m a real version of Morticia Addams. Seeing the beauty in things that most people would find macabre and dark. I really can see the loveliness in it. I see the sad beauty in an old over growing cemetery…it saddens me to see a gorgeous, gothic, Victorian mansion being overrun by the elements. I think that dark, gothic decor is sooo gorgeous. Ravens are my favorite bird. I hate seeing old, vintage houses get modernized. Like seriously it hurts. To quote the internet, if you want a modern house BUY A MODERN HOUSE AND STOP RUINING THE OLD ONES PLEASEEEEE. The amount of times I’ve seen a house that is STUNNING on the outside but then I see the pics of the inside and alll of that beautiful woodwork is painted over with white kills a piece of my soul. You can like modern. Totally fine! Just stop modernizing old houses. 🥺 Ok I think I’m done ranting about that now. Like I was saying I do feel like I’m Morticia Addams (also if you saw how my husband treats me you would KNOW that man is Gomez). There is nothing wrong or evil with skeletons (yes I do know people who think this) because WE ALL HAVE ONE. (Also I am an archaeologist I love skeletons. There is something so very surreal and humbling about gazing upon someone previously lost to time and getting to know their story and bringing them back to light in way.

The most important thing though, is I know where my hope and joy lies. It lies only in the One, Jesus, who died and raised Himself from the dead to save me from my sins because He loved me THAT much. I am covered by the blood of Jesus and because of that…whom shall I fear? Ghosts? Demons? Some plastic decor in a neighbors yard? Nothing.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭27‬:‭1‬ ‭ESV‬‬

I refuse to let a scary movie, or a haunted attraction let me think that I just let a demon into my home…when I KNOW my home and my family is covered in the blood of the Lamb.

“The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you,”
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭12‬:‭13‬A ‭ESV‬‬

So, my fellow believers, think of me what you will…but Jesus knows He is first in my heart and in my life.

Aaaaand with all that…HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!