Looking for Treats at the Wrong Doors.

Greetings ladies and gents,

I pray you all are staying healthy and encouraged out here as we have fully embraced the fall season. If you left it up to me, I'd be wearing a different hoodie every single day! Before we get too deep into today's post, let me also say to make sure that you all VOTE. If you get nothing else out of what I'm writing here, make sure to recall what I said about voting. We're living in too crazy of times for you to consider filling out a ballot to be optional. So make it happen. Now let's get to the discussion at hand, and yes it has to do with trick or treating...in a sense. 

With Halloween being less than a week away, I'm sure that many of us are having pleasant memories of visiting a pumpkin patch, going on a hayride or even surviving a haunted house. But the first thing that probably comes to mind for us all is the tradition of trick or treating. As kids, there were few things more exciting than being able to dress up as your favorite characters and walk from house to house just to collect different candies for devouring purposes throughout that week. I was never a big fan of candy (give me all the potato chips instead) growing up, but I still understood the concept and why it was so beloved. However the one thing our parents would typically warn us about is not to overeat that candy because it would result in a stomach ache and/or cavities. 

As adults now, we aren't going to be seen going all over the neighborhood to gather candy up in a bag for later consumption. Instead, the treats that we may find ourselves seeking out these days come in the form of people's time, attention and intimacy. While each of these are perfectly fine to desire, the problem comes when we are going from door to door trying to get them. Just like with the Halloween candy, too much of these good things can ultimately turn into a bad thing. If you find yourself knocking at too many doors looking for love, you're not going to have enough time to appreciate when you've come across something great. You may just become so used to keeping it moving once someone has fulfilled a certain need of yours that everyone starts looking the same.

When you had that big bag of collected candy as a kid, a lot of times it was so much in there that you weren't even able to eat it all before several pieces of it were no longer edible. We see the same idea when you're trying to give attention to so many people at once. You're bound to have a good amount of those situations turn sour because you've stretched yourself too thin and can't keep up with all the treats you've been seeking out here. A lot of this comes down to discipline. Once you realize that you don't need to walk up to every door offering you a piece of candy(attention, intimacy, etc) then it will save you from a lot of cavities(stress, headaches, etc). 

Now don't get me wrong, I know a lot of times you won't know the type of person you're dealing with until they open up that door and you get to learn them a bit. But you'll have less time available to figure those things out if you're taking the trick or treat approach to situations and finding yourself at too many doors. Slow down your overall approach so that you can actually assess who you're dealing with and there won't be a sense of feeling overwhelmed. Remember that not everyone opening their doors up and offering treats to you has your best interest in mind. It would benefit you to take your time and truly figure those things out before you ask them to just throw that candy in your bag. 

We no longer have our parents walking with us from door to door making sure that we're being safe in these streets. That responsibility is solely on us now and we have to be able to make use of that common sense in the back of our heads. If a situation looks sketchy before you even walk up to someone, then you should probably keep it moving. Those feelings we get in our gut are there for a reason and that's to protect us from what could cause potential harm. So while you may not be going house to house in search of candy this year, make sure you're selective with whose lives you're pulling up on and seeking things from. Often enough they're not worth that avoidable toothache.