Dear Reader

October, I’m falling for you

How is it already October!?! Wow, those last few weeks of summer flew by.

In an editor’s note written earlier this year, I made a case in five testimonies that March is the best month of the year in the PNW, but I have to say, October is a close second for me. There is something about the steadying, recalibrating pace of October that I find incredibly soothing.

By the time October has rolled around, most families have settled into a manageable fall groove. It helps that many of the month’s signature experiences are all about the cozies and the yummies — because who doesn’t love their puffer jacket, any excuse for a bonfire, Halloween tricks and treats, and apple butter slathered on absolutely everything? And pumpkins! You gotta admit it: Pumpkins have to be the cheeriest monthly mascot of all time, no matter your personal stance on pumpkin-spiced sorcery.

And then there is the almighty alchemist of my household: the crockpot. I love crockpot cookery so much that I have them in three graduated sizes. On almost any October day, you could lean over and ask me, “Hey, Patty, whatcha doin’?” And no matter what I am presently occupied with, I can truthfully reply, “I’m cooking dinner, silly!”

October somehow never feels as hurry-scurry as the rest of the year. (Well, unless you’re a squirrel, maybe …) Sure, the year-end months, with their hyperactive holiday stresses and persistent rain, are coming, but we feel alive and oddly recharged by the ginger-hued, temperate glow of a PNW October.

That crisp little nip in the air on a dazzlingly bright October day is an instant mood booster; also, a good prompt to size the kids up for a new pair of rain boots. Because, well, puddles, of course! Walks in nature are exquisite meditative breaks — particularly after it has rained during the day. Sure, rain (or the perpetual threat of it) will become the arch nemesis of too many of our family plans and moods in the weeks to come, but October rain feels like a gentle and purposeful reminder that for everything there is a season and a time for every activity under heaven.

Small daily pleasures intensify in the quieter pockets of October days. Coffee becomes not a necessary fuel to kickstart baseline function but a ritual to be luxuriated over with a dear friend. Or perhaps an occasion to make a new one. We are recalled, during the increasingly darkening evenings of October, to look up at the night sky, feeling infinitesimal but also a bit player in some totally cosmic master play. We’re each listed deep down in the credits somewhere.

However you spend your October (and I might also suggest that it is a great month to gobble up a surplus of new binge-worthy shows and podcasts — see a few suggestions at right — or plow through that teetering stack of books on your bedside table), we hope it delivers all of the good seasonal feels to your family.

— Patty Lindley, managing editor

OCTOBER 2022, VOL. 19, NO. 10 PUBLISHER Alayne Sulkin

EDITORIAL

MANAGING EDITOR Patty Lindley OUT + ABOUT EDITOR Nancy Chaney DIGITAL CONTENT EDITOR Vicky McDonald DIGITAL CONTENT PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Kari Hanson OUT + ABOUT EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Julie Dodobara COPY EDITOR Sunny Parsons CONTRIBUTORS Candace Barlow, Nancy Chaney, JiaYing Grygiel, Kari Hanson, Nikki McCoy, Monica Padineant, Susan Zurek

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