Mostly it happened in October, but sometimes we had good reason to dress up in May. Making costumes for my children has been another way to jump into our imaginations.

One Halloween the twins were Hermiones, in that brief moment when there were two of her through time travel. Micah enjoyed characters that highlighted his red hair. Like the afternoon he asked for a Ronald McDonald costume to wear to a party. That night. Since there was no red and white striped fabric in my stash I had to slice and sew it together for the arms. Once Chara was a nun in full garb, and Lukas was a backwards man. With a mask on his face and his clothes reversed the only thing he could not turn around was his feet. There were years of themed costumes, like when we were the cast of the Wizard of Oz. Of course John was the man behind the curtain, doing card tricks at every home. Chara was Dorothy, and Zack was a decidedly not fierce lion. Mercy had a clanking Tinman costume constructed of cans that rendered her incapable of bending. Benjamin has been Woody long into his teens.  We even wrote Andy on the bottom of his boot. 

On Zack's sixth birthday we invited friends to dress like royalty, and he was the prince. As they entered, each guest bowed to him. When someone came late and tried to melt into the crowd he took me aside and reminded me that they needed to bow too. Which they did. 

Pretending to be what you are not can be a way of stepping into the impossible, hence making it a little more possible.  One way of coining it is to act "as if". As if we are in love. As if we will come out the other side of this catastrophe. As if God is taking care of us.

Then with a click of your heels you find you are right where you want to be.