A month's worth of fun!

I have an unfortunate truth to share today: people are just plain too ambitious.

Yes, many have an inner drive that often translates into success, but there’s a wicked price to pay for that level of achievement and I wonder sometimes if it’s all worth it.

There’s a lot to be said for long-term planning, but determining your life’s path to the nth degree can be excessive and wasteful. No doubt self-sacrifice is virtuous. However, it can also be deadly, especially if you insist on punishing your mind and body to the extent that the fruits of your endeavour grow, but you’re not in any shape to enjoy them upon maturity.

Ask yourself the following: Can you live in the moment? Do you have the capacity to slow it down, kick back, sip a beer, tell a story, share a cuppa?

If the answer to each question is, “Why bother?” you had better pay strict attention. You’re a heart attack waiting to happen, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

Believe me, I know. It’s crazy enough around here some days that it feels like wolves are tearing at your flesh. Thank goodness I can get away from time to time, hit the trail for a run, ride the bike ‘til the wheels fall off, or tell the kiddies bedtime stories about magical and fantastic places and share in their world of imagination.

Release is what it’s all about, my friends, outlets designed to rejuvenate the spirit and satisfy the soul. And if you feel like things are more steamroller than rollercoaster, it’s time to get up, get out and set aside the madness. Indulge your passion for relaxation and check out one of the many Valley Pumpkin Festival Events this month.

Go to www.valleypumpkinfest.ca and click on Events and Activities. You’ll find over 30 fantastic activities, from Windsor to Berwick, guaranteed to take your mind off the day-to-day and enable you to regain personal balance and equilibrium. Go see Quick As A Wink Theatre’s musical, Sleepy Hollow, in Windsor. Enjoy the Harvest Wine Fest and Grape Stomp at Sainte Famille Wines in Falmouth.

How about a Halloween Harvest Supper in Hantsport and then a candlelit cemetery tour, or the Acadia Performing Arts Series’ Red Priest: Nightmare in Venice – A Baroque Halloween Fantasy?

Visit the Town of Kentville’s outstanding pumpkin people displays and thrill to its Harvest Festival this weekend. Or check out Pumpkin Palooza in Wolfville Oct. 6.

There are movies, galas, masquerades, pumpkin painting and carving, unveilings, train rides, and excitement galore.

You can engage in a new activity every weekend for the entire month if you play your cards right, so what are you waiting for? Plug into the Pumpkin Festival.

Indulge your inner organizer, get ambitious for what’s delicious and plan ahead, at least for the next four weeks.

Who knows? You might even find your smile somewhere along the way and that, kids, is always worth the price of admission.