I adore costumes. When we dress the part, we are compelled to act it out, at least for a night. On the one night of the year when everyone dresses to become someone else, why not dress to become who you really are? We all have latent gifts, unique powers, and wild fantasies about who we could be, and what we could accomplish, if we let all of our horses out of their cages to thunder on and run free toward our highest destiny.
I’ve been asking my friends for weeks what their superhero would be. One woman thought about it for a few seconds, and I could see she was searching for a deep truth about herself that she wanted to bring out more. She declared triumphantly, “The Perfect Witch!” (Now, I thought she said “The Perfect Bitch” and burst into hilarious laughter, imagining her superpowers fully activated on Halloween night, giving everyone she met her glorious “tell it like it is” attitude.) But what she described was her witch superpower of weaving healing for everyone in her life, concocting just the right doses of herbs, words, or spirits to restore those whom she loves. We debated whether my version or hers was more fun, and I think I won, but that’s not the point.
Connecting with your Strengths
The point is to dig deep inside and make contact with a gift you’ve hidden, a quality you aspire to develop, or a strength you’d like to cultivate. I asked one male friend, “If YOU were a superhero, what would YOUR superpowers be?” He thought about it for a few minutes and said, “I don’t think I have any.” I responded with, “Well, friend, you’d better think harder!” He immediately brightened. Even though I didn’t name it for him, I had acknowledged his gift and he was inspired. We all need a little reflection of our best selves sometimes, don’t we?Right now is the perfect time to explore your greatest gifts. Halloween is traditionally about transformation, venturing into the underworld for a night to pay homage to the spirits. What better tribute is there but to emerge more yourself than ever before? And you get to paint yourself orange and wear a cape, a tiara, and spandex pants if you want to? Oh boy, I’m sold!
For my “Master of Time” costume, I’ve already got the blue spandex for my cape, and I’m planning to make glittery aluminum foil lightning bolts come out of my sleeves. Maybe even a two feet tall spiral crown, too. Someone suggested clocks hanging from my neck, but you see, my superpower isn’t about always being on time to appointments, or stretching time so I can stay longer at the beach (though that would be nice too). It is about the power to be in the moment, to collapse the past and the future into right now and have total authority to reframe my experience in the most positive light possible. It’s about healing past, present, and future by seeing things as perfect right now. I have the sense of wielding great rays of energy, threads of time, and collecting them into a forcefield, a crucible of transformation for myself and others.
I envision groups of friends going out on the town Halloween night, in their full superhero glory. Like a great “coming out” party for our true selves. And our comraderie will be sort of like the X-men, whose powers complement each other and are unbeatable when called upon to fight evil and restore good. Maybe my friends and I will even come up with our own little superhero chant and choreography to perform at the costume contests. I’m sure there will be a lot of silliness and laughter. (It’s hard not to laugh at yourself in spandex, right?) I can’t wait to see what kinds of deep truths and crazy costumes everyone will come up with.
One last tip: feel welcome to be freely irreverent. Hopefully your costume will inspire you to express your superpowers more openly, and laugh at yourself along the way!
