I'm melting...

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"Ohhh! You cursed brat! Look what you've done! I'm melting! Melting! Oh, what a world! What a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness! Ohhh! Look out! Look out! I'm going! Ohhhh – Ohhhhhhhhhh!"

LAST WORDS OF THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST

when i worked in ministry as a vocation...

way back in the days

when my eyes were still glazed over

and

I thought

birds always sang 

and 

good things always happened to good people...

I always kept 

figurines of the Wizard of Oz

sitting on my desk

I suppose it really wouldn't be a bad thing

to put them on my desk in the secular world

but

I prefer that my employees 

not always know how sensitive I am or how I look for meaning in every situation

I sort of keep those things to myself these days

sort of as a means to protect myself from hurt and disappointment

...but that was just a side bar ramble

....so back on topic..

way back then...and probably a bit now...

I thought these characters really resembled what life

was really all about

and

how all together

the characters taught us much about humanity...

I mean

aren't we all

sort of like Dorothy

following a yellow brick road of sorts

thinking we going to get there...you know to the rainbows end...where life will be rosy and wonderful and...you know

just what we were looking for and waiting for....

Toto...well sometimes each of us needs to sit in the basket and let someone else carry us along..whether we like it or not....

it teaches us about friendship and love and care

it helps us learn about leaning and community and how wonderful it is when we are downtrodden and heavy

for someone..anyone...to just pick us up and carry us for a bit....

it has taken me a long time in my almost 50 years to learn how to 

trust that someone else is strong enough to carry me and my burdens...and in it...I've learned that most things are bearable as long as someone else loves us a bit...

The tin man....well we all need a heart....

need to know how to feel 

empathy and concern and love most of all...we all need oiled up a bit every once in a while to keep us from squeaking and freezing up...

The scarecrow...Lord knows....if we'd only use the brain we have instead of our spontaneous impulse occasionally we'd stay out of trouble...

the lion..teaches us courage....and hell fire and brimstone...every last one of us at some point in our life 

has to face something that scares the beJesus right out of us....

and courage...well it keeps us going in spite of everything else...

The good witch...the world needs more of like her.....to sprinkle goodness and faith and hope in the world....and if we aspire to be her

then from time to time we make it...

and

become a source of goodness in the world...

and

truth is we are always looking for the Wizard

that thing that 

moves us forward

pushes us and pulls us and

offers us some kind of magic...

and

then the mother of all mothers

the b of all b's

the witch of all witches..

most of us don't want to admit it..

but 

dammit to hell

we've all got a bit of her in us...

selfish and self centered

sometimes

a bit that is downright mean

with a pitch of ugly 

...

she is in all of us

whether we admit it or not

some of us hide her better than others...but she still resides

somewhere in the midst of who we are

i love the scene in the movie 

where the witch is splashed with water

and suddenly

right before our eyes

it happens

little miss Meany

the bad girl herself

falls to the ground

and

melts into vapors that dissipate into the air....never to be seen again..

they are all important--these pieces of us---and serve a purpose to a degree or so..

I try to hide 

my 

"bad witch side"

the side that has the mean thoughts

who wants revenge

who really doesn't like someone...

and

she rises up

points her finger

gets her warty nose right in your face..

i don't like others to see her...

most often when she comes out..

someone else sees the bitch in me

and calls me out right there in the middle of the world and splashes me with a bit of water...

splashes me with a drop or two 

remnants of

the baptismal waters where I was birthed...

I appreciate when 

someone steps out and slaps me with 

a cool reminder of 

who I am and whose i am

causing 

the bad girl 

to evaporate the mean 

melt the warts away...

if only for a few minutes or hours....

so let's face

we are all like the branches in the trees of the picture from my backyard

covered with heaviness

layered with tiny little things that add up 

make us distracted

allows the bad witch in us 

to show our ugly green face...

but isn't it wonderful

when 

out of nowhere

cool water springs forth from the fountain of love

spews forth,

moves over the ancient basement of time

and

somehow

someway

meets 

the mean girl in me

melting  

mellowing 

moving me to a different phase

...

for a moment 

...

to allow the better parts of myself

to shine through....for the world to see.....

....

somebody

anybody

...

when you sense that I am 

all frozen

and

distracted and removed from the source of love and grace and hope...

..somebody...

any ole body

run on over

and 

drizzle me 

splash me

drench me from head to toe

and

melt away

the ice along 

go on..melt my witch away....

i can feel it..

melting...

I'm melting...

...

and

it is a good thing!

i suppose

the oz characters

do hold potential for teaching us about our own life...

go on...

follow the yellow brick road

'until you wind your way back 

on around to where you started

and

you hear yourself say...

"there is no place like home"

blessings and hugs

the radical rambler

in 

a rambling mood!