When I was growing up, we never thought about Halloween costumes until right before the holiday. We had several outfits we had gathered over the years, and you could choose from those – or assemble something new with what we had on hand.
My mother has always been incredibly resourceful, and there was no limit to what she could create. She would pull hats and scarves out of closet corners, blend them with skirts and blouses we had forgotten, and suddenly we were book characters or saints or famous people.
She could make a cardboard box into anything, and I remember my sister Maureen dressed at least once as a stunning dinner table. My youngest brother was a robot for many years, wearing the same two cardboard boxes covered in aluminum foil.
Then there was the year I was a crayon.
I’m not sure where we got the idea. Maureen was always creative, so she might have been the one who made it. All I remember is that on Halloween morning, when we got ready for school, my mother slipped my arms through holes in a piece of orange posterboard, wrapped it around me, added a matching cardboard hat, and sent me on my way.
The costume itself looked fantastic. I did, in fact, look like a child-sized crayon, with the Crayola brand colored precisely in black marker on the posterboard.
What was less impressive was my ability to function as a student – and as a person. On our morning walk to St. Pius X School in Rodgers Forge, I discovered I couldn’t take my normal 6-year-old strides. The costume extended past my knees, making every step challenging.
I don’t remember my siblings complaining or laughing that I was so slow. Maybe they were dealing with their own costume struggles. Somehow, I managed to make it up the steep alley to get to school, my stiff little cardboard self carrying a backpack and ready for what was sure to be a day with a party.
Once at school, I had to figure out how to navigate simple tasks like moving around the classroom. I am not entirely sure how I made it through the day, but I did, and of course I wore the costume for trick-or-treating that evening, too. I earned my candy that year.
But because I was a child, and Halloween was so important, I doubt I complained much at the time. That would be like whining that you had to wake up early on Christmas morning or search too hard for Easter eggs. It was just part of the celebration.
As an adult, though, I’ve come to see that there are challenges that stretch us and make us better people, and there are challenges that complicate our lives and weigh us down – with no real benefit. Ideally, we embrace the opportunities that help us grow and become better versions of ourselves, also becoming closer to God along the way.
After all, whatever we take on, God continuously invites us to grow in our faith and in our love for him.
“If you wish to go to extremes, let it be in sweetness, patience, humility and charity,” said St. Philip Neri.
Whatever new challenges you undertake during this season, may you find they give you strength, clarity of purpose or whatever you are seeking on your faith journey.
And, if you’re looking for a costume idea this Halloween, may I recommend something other than a cardboard crayon?
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