I’m not drawn to scary things, or at least not the frightening things that Halloween is famous for.

Ghosts and monsters and ghouls. Horror has never really interested me. But the masks we wear that both conceal and reveal us.

The darkness we must confront in ourselves and in the world. The ghouls that chase us with regret or shame. The monsters of trauma and loss that stalk us. The scary truths that chain us down until they’re finally acknowledged, all that interests me.

Horror doesn’t interest me but finding strength and courage and beauty in the darkest center of the most horrifying things always has.

Perhaps the scariest ghosts are the one who live inside us, the ones we ask: is it ok to be who I want to be, to do what I want to do and live how I wan to live?

It’s the scariest ghost because it already knows the answer is YES! and that can be truly terrifying.