Last week (on Wednesday, I think), Marci captured the image here to the left of Elliot carving a pumpkin (props to my wife for the beautiful photography!).  The resulting jack-o-lantern was a festive seasonal decoration that graced our dining room table with its goofy grin for a couple of days thereafter.  At night, we would light the tea-light candle within the pumpkin's cavity, and Elliot and Olivia would "Ooh" and "Ahh" over its amber-glowing countenance.

But by Saturday, the lid to the jack-o-lantern had sunk in and dropped into the slimy innards of an increasingly moldy pumpkin.  It started to smell bad, and by the end of the day on Saturday, the mold was crawling out of the jack-o-lantern's mouth to the point that we decided it was time for ol' Jack to hit the road.

It was amazing to me how quickly it had deteriorated.

At another time this weekend, I was helping the kids to build the tallest, most massive, most impressive, most awesome lego space shuttle ever conceived in the mind of man.  And when we had finished the project -- using almost every lego piece we own -- I have to admit that the space shuttle was beautiful.  It reached up to my chest, and it had stairs, and racing tracks, and a jail, where a police officer perched on his own platform out to the side, waiting to throw any misbehaving space travelers into the "brig."  It was fantastic.  But again, within perhaps 15 minutes of its completion, the lego space shuttle was demolished -- deliberately and completely.

And again I was left to marvel at the rate of deterioration in our world today -- the way that things can so quickly sprout, blossom, bloom... and die.

For me, I can't help but compare these experiences to the onset of another Dutch winter.  November always seems to be the hardest for me, and it's almost here again.  It's a mix of seasonal depression (sunlight deprivation),  missing America, remembering tough Novembers from the past, and just dealing with the daily realities of the crappy gray weather of Amsterdam.  I wish that this deterioration of the seasons didn't have to come again so soon.  I wish that I didn't have to slog through another November.

But then again, I see reason for hope and encouragement in the lessons of the jack-o-lantern and the lego space shuttle.  I see that there are joys and opportunities in the passing of the seasons.  I see that the temporary nature of our little joys are perhaps an integral part of what makes them so joyful.

So I've made a decision for myself:  that I'm going to fight against the November Blues this year.  I'm not going to sit idly by, waiting for the depression to overtake me.  I'm going to actively try to deal with the melancholy and overcome it to whatever extent might be possible.   My ideas for exactly how this "overcoming" will happen are still in the formation stage... But I'm preparing.  I'm anticipating.  And in a way, I'm even starting to look forward to the challenge.

I'm going to spend the coming month actively searching for the Joys of November.  Thanks to Helen's advice,  I think I'm going to try and participate in the NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) -- posting something here on this blog every day for the entire month of November.  Partially because blogging is a hobby that I enjoy and that naturally refreshes me.  And partially because I feel like I want and need something to keep me looking -- searching for the small signficances, the Joys of November.

Stay tuned for more...