It’s been a few years since I’ve donned a costume and gotten into the Halloween spirit from head to toe.   It’s always been about the kids and creating their perfect costume. After my share of purchasing Lillian Vernon dragon and superhero costumes, I was thrilled and ready to fire up my glue gun and create a ‘flower baby’ costume for my little rose, Olivia, to fit between her big brother thorns, Avery and Connor.

My little Anne Geddes rendition won her a first prize at our neighborhood party and had her dad beaming with pride as he carried her around that Halloween in a garden planter. 

Well, that sweet chapter of Halloween memories has closed but just as chapters close, we can be sure that a new one is waiting to open. And who knew that this one would be so much fun?  Halloween costumes for Mom and Dad!

It’s always fun to receive an invitation in your mailbox but when the realization hits that the only way you can attend is by going as something other than yourself, you begin to question your RSVP?  Unfortunately, we only had a few weeks to wrestle with the big question “who do we wanna’ be”?  As a life coach I know the answer to this question can sometimes take a life time.

Well, my ‘computer enginerd’ hubby ironically can be my ‘go to guy’ when it comes to these types of challenges.  My windy city loving man’s response to my “what ‘cha wanna’ dress up as’ was “something to do with Chicago.” Of course, I thought.

 Hmm, I don’t really see my hubby as the gangster type but then I never really pictured him as a baseball player either until ‘Dave Freese’ hit the winning World Series homerun either so stranger things have happened….

For those of you who don’t know my hubby, he’s a big guy who is still sports an ’80s ’stach and can give off a ‘don’t mess with me’ vibe until you get to know him.  Famous Chicagoans Al Capone, Mayor Daley and Michael Jordan could possibly fall into that category but after a tiny bit of time recollecting big wig Chicagoans that could make sense to Dave Freese’s inner and outer persona, there was that Halleluiah-singing-chorus-right-under-your-nose moment --Mike Ditka!!  How could he have forgotten that larger than life guy, that guy my hubby’s frat brothers used to call him because of the resemblance even two decades ago?  After 20 plus years, he’s still got it and even more so.

It was so obvious that it took some time for Dave and me to see it; to remember.  And isn’t that the way life is when we wrestle with the big questions like “what should I be?”, “what should I do?” and “what is my purpose?” 

Often times, when working with my life coach clients, much of what we discuss and the insight I share is elementary and obvious.  And because it is so elementary and obvious, sometimes that is why the answers to many of the big looming questions can be so hard.  Too often they are missed when trying to answer them on your own.  Only after peeling our questions back to the inner core will we see that the answers were there with us all along. 

So if you’re wrestling with the big questions, simply stop, step back, shut out what your life has become, and look inside beneath your layers of life.   Soon you’ll hear yourself saying, “Wow, how could I have missed that”? 

OK, I digress; back to our Halloween charade.  So my hubby dug into his yesteryear Mike Ditka resembling days and eerily brought him into the present.  As for me, my costume didn’t fall too far from the tree either.  I called on my mentor, my inspiration, and my fellow home-town girl, Oprah. If you’d like to check us out, color and all, go to my blog at http://amyfreese.com.

Amy Freese is a life and style expert. Contact her at mailto:amy@designerherliving.comor visit her website at www.amyfreese.com.