October 28, 2022
Five years ago, my kids wanted to be the PJ Mask kids for Halloween. My husband and I dressed up as the villains (of course) and to make my Luna Girl costume perfect, I bought a cheap, short, white-blond wig at the Halloween store. The second I put it on, I loved it. I looked like a retro and cooler version of myself. Sure, maybe I’m the only one who thought that, but I just felt like a different person the second that wig went on. The next year, I dressed as Ursula to Lily’s Uma (from the Descendants) and I added bright red lipstick with that wig to create my ultimate alter-ego. Since then, my Halloween costume has always had two things – that white-blonde wig and that bright red lipstick.
In real life, I would never have platinum hair, and as you guys already know, this girl does not wear lipstick and has only basic skills around a makeup brush. But there is something about dressing up that makes us feel somehow like a different person. Someone who makes us feel braver and stronger, someone who makes us feel more free to be who we WISH we were, or someone who just may not be dealing with All. The. Stuff we are personally carrying.
I’ve been thinking…does Halloween dress-up – costumes, masks, etc. – help us hide the stuff we carry, the stuff we’d like to forget, and help us project out the things we wish? Maybe I’m reaching (and there’s a good chance I am), but why do we feel like we have to mask who we are in order to actually be braver, stronger, or just plain lipsticked?
I’m not sure if I know the answer, but one thing I do know is that no matter how great the costume, the mask, the wig or the lipstick, we can’t hide our true selves from God. He knows us. He sees us. And he created us and embraces us for all the things we attempt to cover up – all our blemishes, our personal pains, our flaws. And he welcomes us to grow as people – His people – so we don’t have to be afraid to embrace some of our little alter-ego pieces within our real-life personas.
We can learn to be a little more bold, maybe we can learn to try new things, and maybe we can – as my favorite TV mom, Chili Heeler, tells her daughter, Bingo – allow our outside voice to say no when our inside voice says no, too. [Drop what you are doing and go watch the “Dance Mode” episode of Bluey – stat!]
And maybe – just maybe – we can give ourselves and others around us permission to take the masks off when we are trying to hide any hurts or pains or trauma we hide inside. To be real and vulnerable with each other. Because, when the costumes come off, that’s when empathy and healing begins.
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
Psalm 139: 13-14
The moral of this shortened blog? Y’all – don’t be afraid to wear lipstick on November 1. I’ll try to take that advice myself.
Until next time,
Jess