A Halloween Riddle…When is it OK to ghost?

Answer – only on Halloween when you’re dressed up and looking someone in the eye to cut-out eye.

Have you ever been ghosted? I can’t speak for you, but for me it feels lousy and I can’t help but take it personally.

Have you ever ghosted someone?

Now, I’m not going to lecture you since it’s Halloween and for me, it’s a favorite holiday and I don’t want to kill your (or my) buzz. But just like all the spookiness of Halloween, ghosting is born out of fear.

• Fear of embarrassment.

• Fear of having a difficult conversation.

• Fear of???

What else comes up for you?

Do you remember what if feels like to visit a haunted house or watch a scary movie? You know it’s make believe, but you can’t help but get caught up in the spookiness of it all. (insert spooky music here).

When I was little, my hometown had a haunted house. It was a town favorite. My brother, sister and I couldn’t wait to go every year. We were excited and different levels of scared depending on our age.

We all patiently waited our turn to walk through the haunted house and have the volunteers who were dressed up and often hiding, jump out and give us that thrilling, scary feeling.

But what if you were too scared to walk through the haunted house?

As I look back on the haunted house of my childhood, I can’t help but reflect that the organizers were pretty aware and they were not going to leave anyone out. They provided one of the best characters ~ the good fairy.

As we lined up waiting our turn to walk through the spookiness, the good fairy would come through the line. As you can imagine, she was beautiful, dressed in pink, glittery makeup, smiling, wand in hand and checking in with everyone in line.

If you were really, truly afraid, the good fairy would accompany you.

Here’s how the good fairy changed the experience.

If the good fairy was with you, those same volunteers would gently appear, waving and wishing you a happy Halloween.

The good fairy was their cue to take it easy.

I love this because it allowed everyone to experience the haunted house. Nobody was left out or singled out for being scared. There was no shame. It was absolutely brilliant and so very simple.

Spoiler alert, eventually my brother, sister and I were all able to walk through the haunted house without the good fairy. But she was there when we needed her. She made sure we weren’t left behind and it helped boost our confidence. We felt like such ‘big’ kids when we didn’t need her any longer. We learned that what we thought was scary, really wasn’t so scary after all.

You know I’m going to circle back to ghosting…right?!?

If you are ghosting someone, to honor the good fairy of the haunted house from my youth, I’m going to invite you to conjure up (call upon) your inner good fairy to accompany you to do what’s scary. Have that difficult conversation.

And after a few times with the good fairy, just like my brother, sister and I, I think you’ll find it’s not so scary after all.

Let me know how your good fairy works for you by commenting below or dropping me a line here. And if you need a little help getting in touch with your inner good fairy, please reach out to me.

Happy Halloween and until next time…enjoy your journey.