Follow The Yellow Brick Road...

This might be the most important post I ever write. The girls and I watched The Wizard of Oz last night. Oh yes we did. For those of you that love me (Auntie Lori) you understand why I am tearing up as I even type the words. For those of you that don't, let me take a moment to explain.

The Wizard of Oz. Oh The wonderful Wizard of Oz. It has been my favorite movie since I was like a fetus. I would wait until April of every year for it to come on television. There was no pause button, no On Demand gizmo, no rewind if I missed something. There was no VCR/DVD/Blue Ray nonsense. You could not download it on your iphone. You waited. You checked the actual TV Guide. The one made of paper. You got your blanket ready. You got your popcorn popped. You got up and changed the channel. Manually. You waited. Then that MGM Lion would roar and the black and white credits would start rolling and you knew you were in the presence of magic. I swear fairies shot straight out of my television. My hands would pour sweat and I would watch and hang on every single solitary word. As I grew, the meaning of The Wizard of Oz grew as well. It was no longer a movie with a colorful cast of characters and the scariest movie villianess of all time. It was chock full of life lessons that I dreamed of teaching to my children someday.

So last night, the journey down my own personal yellow brick road reached another milestone along the way to wherever I am going. I sat on my couch with my two little girls. I sat in the middle so my arms would be able to hold each of them during the scary parts. Six hands ooozed so much sweat that we needed to get a dish towel. We had blankets. We had popcorn. We had a flat screen. We had high definition, pause, rewind, fast forward, slow motion and closed caption if we wanted it. And you know what? Magical fairies still flew out of the television. The same ones that flew out and visited me in 1976. How did they know how to find me?

Needless to say the girls loved it. Jessica cried so hard at the end when Dorothy had to say goodbye to her friends in Oz and refused to believe that the farmhands were her friends from Oz. She had me hold her forever and she just had to call her Daddy and Grammie to tell them she was so so so sad. I asked her if she wishes that she didn't watch it and she said "well mama, I will watch it again tomorrow and see if I wish I didn't watch it." Katie just plain loved it. She has been dancing around and singing "ding dong the witch is dead", or "because of the wonderful things he does". It was simply magical. Jessica's favorite person is the tin man, the sentimental, gentle soul. It's not surprising. Katie's favorite is the scarecrow. The class clown of the group. Again, not a big surprise. It's funny, as a little girl, all I ever wanted to be was Dorothy Gail from Kansas. I wanted those sparkly shoes and that little dog in the basket. I identified with her fear and her desire to explore the world. Later on, much later on, I also came to learn that you can only truly find your heart's desire within yourself, your home and your family. There's nothing out there in that great big world that answers some big mystery or provides some holy grail. It is as mythical as Oz itself. Home, God, family, love and self. It's what it is truly about. Finding happiness within. What a life lesson to learn. I think it's harder to learn for girls. We are bombarded with Victoria Secret Angels, and Angelina Joile's lips and perfection everywhere. To really understand that your worth comes from being a daughter of God, from having integrity, from being real was a tough one for me. I hope it isn't so for my little tin man and scarecrow. I hope I can help them know this earlier than I did.

So I guess that's all I have to say about it. I leave you with this quote from the Wizard. It was at this point in the movie that Jessica and Katie joined me in crying and we all sat there and sniffled as we realized Dorothy would have to say good-bye to her wonderful friends. As the Wizard gives the heart to the tin man he says..."and now remember this my sentimental friend. A heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others." Today my heart is full and overflowing. Hope yours is too!