Happy Diwali-ween!! The Joy of Making Costumes!

The amazing Laura Vasquez does makeup for my daughter's Diwali-ween costume!

I love ritual. As an American who does not belong to a church, finding rituals and ways for my children and I to find meaning in life, connect to the environment and harmonize with the universe is important. When there is no Guru, you do the best you can!

Ritual in Latin mean, repetio materi descendi. Repeatedly descending into matter. Connecting to our environment seasonaly helps create reality out of our thoughts and intentions as well as connect us to our environment. That's when the boons come, and it assists in mental and physical health. Make it a part of your family life.

Even though it's spring here in the Southern Hemisphere, the season of Halloween came around on our North American-born clocks to honor and become conscious of the reality of death. We also celebrated the Hindu Diwali, the festival of lights, to celebrate the triumph of light over dark. It became a combo party holiday! The outcome was a closer connection to our own life and a lot of fun and connection with friends and family!

Halloween reminds us that death is real. But that out of death comes life. And your life within, that divine light, is eternal and deathless. Be aware of how precious each moment of your life is, I teach my kids. It's a time to celebrate this part of life, and it's so darn fun to dress up and explore our shadows and dark side! It helps balance out and become aware of unknown emotions and repressed thoughts.

Here in Argentina, Halloween was not celebrated much. Only a very loud party Halloween Saturday night, and a few neighborhood boutiques pushing Chinese imports of crappy costumes made by slaves. This type of Halloween is something to be avoided like the plague, since it destroys imagination, intelligence as well as the local economy. Back home in Boulder my son and daughter and I usually made a trip down to the local thrift store to save our imaginations, wallets and civilization, and explore the possibilities and items available to us. We roamed the aisles, letting imaginations and creativity open up to a costume idea that may arise from the experience.

Mamma Solis finishing the wings on her daughter's bee costume. I used to make all my kids' costumes. Thank god for Laura to help find stuff to make this with!

I do admit that in the past I succumbed to the mind-numbing practice of spending hard-earned dollars for this overpriced Chinese slave-made costumes, or God, truth be told purchased it on CREDIT! What a mistake! Down with terrorist banks! But no more! Credit is the past! Hand-made frugality and the value of thrift is the present and future!

Making your kids' own costumes is a joy. It also provides great creative satisfaction of making something with your own hands, rather than supporting Chinese slavery. Other years of handmade costumes include: My son: a Pokeman salesman, Indiana Jones and Robin Hood. My daughter : A spider, Pippi Longstocking. She also made her own fantastic costume for school book reports of Franny K. Stein and Junie B. Jones. When I made my son’s Robin Hood costume, that cape got great use in many a school play! Also, a huge box of costumes when they were kids piqued their imaginations and intelligence and they had loads of fun dressing up. You should have seen the art and stories they wrote after playing with it!

Our Diwalo-ween feast! Empanadas, dulces and light to show Lakshmi the way!

This intelligence and imagination has always spilled over into my kids’ school work and creativity. Albert Einsein himself said that imagination is more important than knowledge! So it helps kids learn! My kids write well, and create amazing stories and possibilitie. My son loves to read, and even though my daughter has a learning disability, the imagination and writing are big hallmarks of her intelligence and creativity.

In yoga home chool, my daughter is writing and illustrating a story called, “The Tin Girl.” Originally this was going to be her Halloween costume, however, she decided on a bee. Our dear tutor, Laura, knew just where to go in Buenos Aires for materials (something that escapes me, for I am trapped in American big-box chain store hell and have no where to go from here without a Michaels store around! But that is slowly changing, thank Goddess!)

Our costume wasn’t ready in time for Halloween, and some expat friends with kids were out of town, so we decided that our party would be a cross between Halloween and Diwali. In preparation, this week our morning family yoga practices consisted of the theme of Diwali, the conquering of light over darkness. Of truth over ignorance, of good over evil. We also had some Lakshmi stories, understanding her psychological role in the energy of wealth, abundance, manifestation, the hearth and home and the divine Goddess. I retold the story of Lakshmi and Rohini, http://www.4to40.com/folktales/index.asp?p=When_Goddess_Lakshmi_Begged&k=Folktales_about_Diwali. There are so many! Find some and tell your kids stories!

The finished "disfraze." La Abeja de Buenos Aires! My daughter designed it, drew the design, and Laura helped her find the materials to make it come true! Mamma helped finish!

We made empanadas, and had some sweets from a local confitería. We lit lots of candles to celebrate the path of light that Lakshmi follows into our home to bless it with wealth and divine consciousness!

Diwali is the time to buy gold. Yesterday, I did take our tutor, Laura, to a local Argentine bank to find out about gold. Because I care about everyday people who get hammered by the invisible tax of inflation (this is a Milton Friedman quote, not mine.) And since Ben Bernanke and the private US Reserve is at it again debasing the US currency and causing hyperinflation, I hope she will take it to heart and buy gold to protect her savings, her family and her community. I would have loaded up, except I needed an Argentine residency card to buy it as a foreigner. Gold is a blessing! It protects the people from evil bankers! It was up more than $60 in the last few days, due to Bernanke’s counterfeiting of US money! Thank you Lakshmi! I also realized how very economically illiterate the average American is, so I’m doing my best to help Argentina and America about gold!

I do feel a connection to the divine. Did my kids? “I had fun,” said my son. He had a great time playing with fire and lighting candles! Ok! Great! That’s what it’s all about! I had fun too, and am connected to the abundance, the divine, the life and glory of the Goddess and the world! And it's so much fun to create and celebrate as a family and with friends!