Finding the Way Home....

"Cowardly Lion: I'd be brave as a blizzard... 
Tin Woodsman: I'd be gentle as a lizard... 
Scarecrow: I'd be clever as a gizzard... 
Dorothy: If the Wizard is a wizard who will serve. 
Scarecrow: Then I'm sure to get a brain... 
Tin Woodsman: A heart... 
Dorothy: A home... 
Cowardly Lion: The nerve!"

The Wizard of Oz

I've heard this movie...seen this movie, lived this movie more times than I can even begin to count.

 When off color son was little, he spent hour upon hour rewinding on the VCR to his favorite parts. Big Daddy was a stay at home dad at the time, so he, off color daughter and off color son, would fill their days with an array of things.

One of off color son's favorites activities would be to put "oz" in the VCR and rewind, rewind, rewind.  He and the off color crew would sing and dance and act out the various parts of the movie with his favorites being...

"the tin man's dance--if I only had a heart...toot toot."

"the lion's---put um up...put um...up...."

"the walk through the forest and watching for lions and tigers and bears...."

so for many years.....I can remember hearing the sounds of off color family singing, dancing and jumping off the furniture which had suddenly become a forest grove or a yellow brick road or a wizards castle.

During this time, the one thing off color son wanted for Christmas was "oz" guys--meaning "oz" action figures.   This was thirteen years ago, long before the movie had become popular among kids again and let me tell you...

I searched high and low to find these oz action figures.

Finally after giving up, I stopped in a local antique shop to just peruse for  myself and happened upon a box set of

Oz collectible which could pass as an action set......expensive....but at least

Santa would bring what had been asked for....

The off color children played with these for many years and finally when they were done...

I claimed them and kept them sitting on my desk when I worked in parish ministry.

They represented the many aspects of the things we were and the things we were looking for.....

I no longer have an office in the church and my oz figures are boxed up in my retreat teaching box....

but

I think about them often

and about what they have taught me.....

1. The characters of the Oz are all parts of us....we have the same questions, the same desires, and the same ability to live out the roles as all of the characters from the movie....and we are all searching for something to complete us and make us whole.

2.  the things Dorothy and her friends were searching for are the same as ours..

we search for courage,

intelligence, heart

and

always a way home.

3. the good and the bad from both Glenda and the wicked witch from the East...hold the same capacity for us as in the emerald city....

we make the choice..

we choose to honor the good elements of ourselves and embody,

grace, hope and love...

or

we become the embodiment of

our greed, our wounds, our hurts and

our bitterness

and

learn to take it out on others and rain on their happiness.

4.  sometimes, we need a good friend to carry us.  Toto spent alot of time letting Dorothy tote him in that basket.....in the end...

his love and devotion to her was worth it.

5.  sometimes.....the wizard surprises us...

that thing behind the curtain...

underneath our stuff..well

when we look deep in the mirror...

the wizard looking back behind the curtain

sometimes causes us to say,

;who the hell are you?;

surprised by a vision of our real self...

when we stare deep enough and long enough..

we find out...

our capacity to listen to our inner voice

will and does lead us in the right path..

we just have to learn that we don't need some big megaphone or emerald city to get our message out...

we just have to trust

what is inside.

and

finally....

just like Dorothy and all the folks in the movie...

we are all on a journey...

all trying to follow the yellow brick road

to get to the place

the place we've been before and fulfill that desire we carry...

finding our way home...

home for us...

though does not embody

alot of singing and dancing and searching..

if during this season..

we choose

to sit..

to close our eyes..

to let the light of love infuse us...

if we settle for long enough without

jumping into the flurry of

presents, cakes, candies, cleaning, trimming.....

if we trust our heart,

have the courage,

think with our head,

and

listen

the wizard inside of us

the Spirit which guides us

will lead us...

right where we belong....

right

to our heart place...

otherwise known as home...

I really don't like the movie..

but I love the characters and what they teach me about life...

so on this wonderfully crisp

Friday morning...

it is wonderfull to be

alive,

breathing,

warm, full

and

HOME....

for there is no place quite like it..

Happy Day and Hugs...