roots of my heart

I think our family’s unofficial motto is “Celebrate small things as though they are big things”. We got very good at making a big deal out of every holiday. And I do mean EVERY last blessed holiday. May Day? Yes indeed.

Halloween was no different. Sometimes our costumes were really incredibly creative. Our toilet paper came in bales. Probably about the size of a pack of Costco’s toilet paper, but a giant paper bag. One year we made our costumes out of these huge bags and some construction paper.

This particular picture makes me smile. My original one-of-a-kind witch costume is made out of my mother’s old nightgown held up by yards of twine. The hat was created with construction paper and tape. The lovely ghost by my side is shrouded in a piece of white fabric from my mom’s sewing stash. And that is our faithful dog, Toby behind us. We even carved an unripe little pumpkin.

Even in the middle of nowhere, Loita, Kenya we got to go trick-or-treating. We didn’t have neighbors who celebrated Halloween with us, but we did have beautifully creative parents. They sent us from door to door in our own house. After my dad would give us candy in the kitchen, he sent us to my mom in the dining room while he dashed to our office in the back house. When my mom sent us to the office, she would dash to the school room beside the office, and so on.

In creating the costumes, we felt the anticipation of the holiday. We hung little pictures of pumpkins and black cats and skeletons. In the dressing up, we felt pride and exhilaration. We got the thrill of feeling our little bags fill with goodies. We felt the rush of a sugar high. It was all very Halloweeny and normal…sort of.

Sometimes there were large groups of people at our house, and we celebrated big. Other times, there were four of us at our house, and we celebrated big. So, celebrate the small stuff. Celebrate the big stuff. Just celebrate!