"Change your thoughts and you change your world"  - Norman Vincent Peale

    

With the frost on the pumpkins, it is a balmy 27 degrees this October Monday morning.  As I sit next to the fire warming my engines, sipping on a little java, the season of change continues to be all around us.  Saturday afternoon as I headed to my sisters house the winds were scurrying the leaves amazingly along the sidewalks almost in a big frenzy to get them on their way.  It was a pretty colorful and awesome sight.  The movement of the red and orange leaves tumbling on the sidewalks to parts unknown!  It was as if they were saying, "Let's roll!"

 

I have gotten myself to thinking, here in the early morning light about the fun and tradition of dressing up in costume that comes with this week of Halloween.  What a quicker way to make a change than to become another identity entirely.  Putting on the look and feel of someone or something else, really becoming them for a day or an evening.  It is the fun of costume.  

 

This morning as you read these words think back to the costumes you have worn over the years.  How did they make you feel?  Which one's were your favorites?  Were you pretty or scary?  Were you funny perhaps, a real or a fictional character?   Did you get so into your costume and the character it represented?  Did it bring a new awareness about yourself or others?  Did it have you perhaps putting everything else in your life on hold as you totally were in the zone of being in the moment, of fully being that character?  I really do think that is the fun of playing dress up.  

 

I can remember as a little girl my Mom bringing characters to life for me in such a magical way.  Those were back in the days when she would sew up something that would make me squeal with delight.  Whether it was a Flapper Girl outfit or Mary Poppin's.   I loved the details that she went to in making the costumes just right.   I can also remember the golden days of drama class when we would practice our roles for months and then the day came when we got our costumes.  How exciting that was!  All of a sudden the character we had been formulating in our heads became so much more real when we could see the visuals for them.  

 

And if you think about it - if you can slip into that frame of mind and be what you want to be, with the simple change of an outfit - couldn't you do that for things you want in your life simply by slipping on a new attitude? Putting yourself into the frame of mind for moving forward in a direction that you want to move towards.  Not by waiting for something miraculous to happen, not by waiting for someone else to do something to make your change - but by making it happen all by yourself.

 

So as you are getting ready for trick-or-treating this week think about the real treats you could give to yourself by truly being all that you can be when you play the role of the authentic you.  It really is the best character you can be!