Follow the Yellow Brick Road

“My therapist used to sometimes quote that famous line from The Wizard of Oz.

You know the bit. It's where the Scarecrow, confronted by the dark and frightening Haunted Forest, says:

"Of course, I don't know-but I think it'll get darker before it gets lighter."

…

Funnily enough—as an aside—I have a pet theory that everyone in life corresponds to one of the characters in The Wizard of Oz.

There's Dorothy Gale, a lost child, looking for a place to belong; an insecure, neurotic Scarecrow, seeking intellectual validation; a bullying Lion, really a coward, more afraid than everyone else. And the Tin Man, minus a heart.

For years, I thought I was a Tin Man. I believed I was missing something vital inside: a heart; or the ability to love. Love was out there, somewhere, beyond me, in the dark.”

~The Fury by Alex Michaelides

Reading these words one night, I felt their weight and sat with them for a while.

I reflected on my past as a lost soul searching for a place to belong, as a scarecrow neurotic and unsure seeking validation, and as a heartless and despairing person. I sat with my moments of fear and insecurity throwing myself into title and position.

I realized that The Wizard of Oz was a story of our human journey, the stages, and phases we go through to find our way back home to ourselves.

And…

Like Dorothy, we often realize that the power to do so was within us all along.