This weekend turns the calendar page to October 1 and as I once again asked myself “what shall I write about this week?” I got the notion to type in my search engine “special days in October”. The list is quite extensive. Many are serious…there’s a fair share that seem ludicrous while the remainder are quite silly….

I scrolled quickly down the list to see how many observances I could see myself participating. I identified five from the number in the long list…and though they may not be in a top ten list….I made fast connections with each.

*International Older Persons...hmmm, I noticed the word “older” versus “old”. Doesn’t seem that long ago as a young working adult I thought the 25 year old married guys in my department were “OLD”….I’ll be 70 in a month…guess my youthful opinion makes me a dinosaur now.

*National Coffee Day….I had my first cup of coffee at the age of 19 and that was by default. All the guys in my department drank coffee; if I wanted tea or hot chocolate it meant rinsing out the sole coffee carafe to have hot water. That meant extra steps to the bathroom…so I heaped a lot of cream and sugar to quench the taste of black coffee. It didn’t take long to realize adding sugar to my coffee was stacking up calories…dropped the sugar….not too much later I was able to eliminate the cream, too. But! I admit that I do enjoy seasonal creamer flavors that come out in the Fall and at Christmas!

*National Name Your Car...I didn’t know this day existed. Gosh, my husband and I have been naming our cars since we got married in 1980. A sampling includes Buzz Bomb, Madonna, Blue Whale, Jack, Hazel, The Waggie, The Buick, Snow White, Red Racer. I have no idea WHY we name our cars, but it’s been fun. I even had to ask my husband to help me remember a few names. He stepped in as I was writing to have me include names of cars from his own family…mom’s was the Rust Rocket and granny’s was the Silver Bullet.

*National Be Nice...for heaven’s sake isn’t it a shame we humans HAVE to be reminded to be nice? I had to include this one because after all, that’s the format of my blog. So, have you been nice today? You have until midnight…and then you can start over tomorrow when you wake.

*World Hospice & Palliative….this one holds a lot of significance. Both of my parents were placed under the care of hospice; I cannot describe the level of gratitude and respect I have for this organization. Caring for people in their final days, weeks, or months is a special calling. I’ve yet to meet a hospice employee who was not gracious, loving, and totally committed to serving families, sacrificing time and energy.

There you have it. There’s a few of special days in October that brought back immediate memories from long ago to the present. If you’ve got a few minutes, do your own search and see what you might want to celebrate in October, too. Grab a cup of coffee….glance at your car and give it a name….be nice today…heck, be nice every day! and be grateful for life, for the air in your lungs…pray you get to become one of the “older” people.