Lessons from the Wizard of Oz

What if your core issue is where your gold lies? I remember seeing the Wizard of Oz when I was a little child. At the time I didn’t see it with the depth that I do now. The lion had no courage, the tin man had no heart and the scarecrow had no brain. At the end of the movie, the wizard gives each of them the gift they already always carried inside. The lion was given the gift of courage, the tin man was given the gift of a heart, and the scarecrow was given the gift of intelligence. In that moment of the movie, each characters’ eyes light up as if coming to a realization that what they had always asked for, already existed inside of them. The lion thought he was a coward, but courage had been there all along. The tin man thought he was unintelligent, but his thinking shined through the minute the wizard handed him the fake diploma. And the scare crow showed how much he cared for Dorothy throughout the movie-his heart was always there.

Sometimes the very things we run from in ourselves, the very things we belittle or feel we lack in ourselves, and the core issue we may have carried with us and struggled with from the beginning, may actually have a blessing in disguise. I’m not posing this as truth all the time, but I think it is something to consider. There is a quote that I’m reminded of by Nelson Mandela, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

I have observed some of this in working with children, adults, and watching friends and others, even acquaintances shine in unexpected ways. I have seen the child who thinks he is not intelligent come up with creative and unexpected ways to solve a problem. It was not that he was unintelligent, he had a unique and different way of seeing and viewing things and it was his unique gift that he thought was a curse. I have known people who claim to be insensitive and lacking in empathy, but who actually show up for others, have concern, and accept people exactly as they are. I have watched myself battle and struggle with co-dependency, insecurity, and fear, all the while on some subconscious level working towards security and faith by facing my fears and uncertainties in life head on, tapping into inner courage and confidence I had no idea was already inside of me, only waiting to come out in the scary and dark situations of life.

Each of us has been given some core issue in life that we struggle with and around. Maybe you’re the tin man, or the scarecrow, or the lion. Or maybe you think you lack something else and are looking for it through others or outside of yourself, completely unaware that what you’re looking for already exists inside of you and it’s only waiting to be found and discovered by you. I have seen it again and again. Gold is there when you finally choose to journey inside yourself to discover it.