March 7, 2004

Samuel: Greetings, dears.

Greetings, Samuel.

S: Well, just looking around this room, I’d say that you’re pretty perky tonight. Are you? Aye. Nice for a change. Does that mean you’re finally getting some rest, because your energy is just bouncing all around here.

Funny announcer.

S: And laughter is probably the best thing to set this room that there is. Perhaps we should have comedians, not jokers, starting things off all of the time. [Clearing throat]

Is it the flowers?

S: [Turning to vase of flowers alongside him.] Now, you’d not be doing that, would you? I don’t know. I was not so certain that the Form was dealing with that.

[. . .]

S: Now. Aye. Well, just think sexy, aye.

I am going to do something that I’ve not done in a very long time tonight. I’m going to tell a story. It’s a story that you’re very familiar with. It is a story, in fact, that I have told the first time I met Mary Claire, in this life. I’m telling it for you, Suzie, because it’s a story you love. Aye. And I want you to remember. While I’m telling the story—or perhaps it would be better if I said while we are telling the story—I want you to remember that although you are hearing this as something you’re very familiar with, translate it as a story about right communication, all right, because that is what I’m speaking about tonight—right communication.

Once upon a time there was a very bright and beautiful young woman, or maybe another way to say that is, Once upon a time there was a vibrant and bright spirit in this world. A spirit who found herself uncomfortable with the same-old, same-old of her life. She found that her life was too small for her heart. Do you know what I mean by that? What do I mean by that? What’s that saying to you? Her life was too small for her heart.

She wanted to expand from what she was doing at the time.

S: She wanted to expand from what she was doing at the time. That works in there. Suzanne.

She knew she was capable of more love and more creativity and more adventure than she saw around her or in her future.

S: Good. She knew that she was not able, she thought, not able to be all that she knew in her heart she could be.

Now, for some of you, that would change just a small bit. It would be all you should be, because humans tend to be run by shoulds in your life, and that’s always a danger. She knew that there was more. She hoped that there was more. She sought that there was more.

And when she loved, she loved so big, and people just didn’t understand her. They didn’t understand the love that she put out.

S: And that too is one of those things that many of you can relate to. Those interesting experiences—there’s my dog—those interesting experiences in which you have to learn to hide your heart lest you be misunderstood, lest you be taken advantage of, lest you put yourself in front of the speeding train of life and get hurt. You learn to hide that heart. And then you yearn for a time, a place, a reality in which you’re not having to hide that heart.

And what that child did was she began to seek. Should I say that word a bit better? More Kentucky like? Seek. She soughted. And as she was seeking that more, she came upon something very special. Now, who knows? Suzie knows.

In the very beginning what she came across?

S: Right.

A dog.

S: Right. She came upon a traveling magician.

She only saw the magician because she was with the dog. She was trying to get away with the dog.

S: Well, she was seeking. She was out on the road seeking something else. Now some might call it running away from home, but you know, don’t you, that that’s really impossible? You can never run away from home. Give me two meanings for that statement.

You are home.

S: All right, three. That’s one.

Home is where the heart is.

S: All right, I’ll put those two together. That’s good.

Home follows you.

S: Because no matter where you go, there it comes after you. It’s the little tin can tied to your tail, isn’t it? If you just stop and deal with it, you won’t be frightened anymore. But it’s that you keep running from it, it keeps scaring you.

She met a travelling . . . magician isn’t exactly the word. What was that person?

Salesman.

S: A what?

Salesman.

He was a vaudevillian.

S: A salesman. A vaudevillian. Is that a villain?

No, he did acts. He did shows. He would do whatever he needed to make money, whatever state he was in. He would try to sell his services as a magician. And if that didn’t work, then he sold . . . what were they called? Snake oil. You know, he had his own potion that he would try to sell people.

S: He had many, many ways to touch others, and he touched others because he had his own needs that caused him to do that. Needs such as routine, having a place to go, basic needs. He had the very first rule down. Got it? Thoughts?

To survive.

S: Oh, well, survive is good, that works. All right.

A sucker is born every minute.

S: A sucker is born every minute. Thank you, Heidi.

That of distributing your knowledge, touching into many arenas, in order to find the one that works. One of the things that people tend to do very early in their life is start cutting their life to this. Cocktail party conversation, back in the days when you went to cocktail parties, or maybe it’s back in the days when you had conversation, would be, “Oh, what do you do?” And most people to answer that question have one thing to do. “I am—and here is the label for the rest of my life.” And yet as a safety mechanism, that might work, but for living in this world it absolutely does not.

And it does not because you are by far more talented, more capable, more wise, more skilled than any one path can bring fulfillment with. And amongst those who are here now as a part of functioning through a greater plan, working as Guardians, you, every one of you, even Oma, even the youngest of you in here, have already been experiencing in your life that “I want to do this. No, I don’t.” “I want to do that, no I don’t.” “I am going to follow this road,” and maybe at the height of that road you say, “But this is not what is fulfilling me. I’m going to do something else. And something else.”

In this world, it can be a bit scary to feel that way, because this is the world that likes to say to you, Don’t be—what would be the word?

Well, that’s thought of in our world by many to be a dilettante.

S: A dilettante. Or fickle. A fickle pickle, yes? A fickle pickle for a nickel.

You’re on tonight.

S: With a tickle. You function in this world in a process of constant change, so why do you think that one of the ways you should define yourself is without change? Why do you think that one direction will always satisfy, because the person who chose that direction is not the person walking it now.

So that magician, flim-flam, vaudeville, whatever, recognized that it’s always nice to have a doorway that you can use to take care of your basic needs. When one leaves off, you’ve got another one to go to. I suppose, in this day and age, it might be when the snake oil runs out, you’ve still got the magic tricks. If the magic tricks aren’t working, because you’ve got an audience who doesn’t like the magic tricks, then you’ve still got kidnapping young girls and taking them to faraway places, something like that.

This bright young spirit, who you know is named . . .

Dorothy.

S: At least, insofar as the story is concerned, Dorothy meets her first connection on the road that shows her that there is life beyond her small box. And she says, “I want to go with you. Take me with you.” She did a very powerful thing there. What was it?

Asked.

S: Yes. Yes. She took a risk. She took a choice. She said, “Take me.” And you’ve got to be so careful in your life that you are not fearing life, opportunity, choices, so much that you’ve stopped stepping forth, you’ve stopped trying, you’ve stopped asking. She said, “Take me.” And he said, “No. Go home little girl.” Perhaps . . . what did he say?

Well, he actually made her look in the crystal ball, and persuaded her that her family needed her and that she needed to go home, because her aunt was ill.

S: He said, “There is a need for you here more than there is there.” And what she did was make another choice, and she went on her way back home.

But, in the meantime, the wind is blowing and a storm is coming up, and she gets back home in time to find that the whole farm is closed down, and this storm is coming about, and so she does what so many people do in the face of such danger: she goes to bed. Life is dangerous, you are faced with circumstances beyond your ability to control it and take care of it, so what should you do? Run and hide. And in so doing, she got smacked on the head, and all sorts of adventures came about.

Now, I want to work a bit more quickly here, because I want you to remember we are talking about communication, communing. Communication. The storm finally ended, and Dorothy went to the door of her home, opened it up and found, along with the amazing change in her eyes so that all of a sudden she could see everything in color, she found that she was in a totally different place. And, once again, she was faced with choices.

One very obvious choice was move forward, see what’s out there. Another one was go back to bed, try again. Try again to ignore it all, cover yourself up. Hope it goes away. She chose to move forward. In so doing, she found herself surrounded by others who were, ultimately, cheering her on, which sort of confused her. She did not understand why they were so happy to see her, but there was a reason, a very important reason. What was that?

Knowing her way. Somebody else’s death transformed her.

S: Didn’t it?

I can speak to that.

S: Yes, indeed. Just choose one; there’s a list there.

What had happened? Somebody’s death transformed her. What death?

Her house fell on the wicked witch.

S: Yes, yes. Whichever direction, her house fell on the wicked witch. There has to be a more politically correct way to tell that story, don’t you think? The wicked witch.

Well, of course, Dorothy was automatically delighted, so very happy, that she had done that. In fact, as she thought about it, she came up with four or five ways in which, in her meditations, she had aimed the house. She thought about all of the times in toning circles that she has said, “This or something better for the highest good.” So she knew that there was absolutely no coincidence that that house fell right on that witch. And so she took a bow, and she was very grateful for all of that applause, right? No. This is a story, it’s not your life, is it? Taking all that credit. No, she was horrified. So horrified, in fact, another—this time it wasn’t an evil witch, it was a what?

A good witch.

S: Right. And how do you know that it’s a good witch instead of a bad witch. Because she said she was. Well, that says a lot, doesn’t it?

The bad witch of the north.

The white dress and the black dress.

S: And the beauty to look at . . . missing the great hat. You can buy into the stereotypes. You can let yourself see what others want you to, and you can direct your life around that, but when you do that, you are stuck in their boxes.

One of the most important aspects of communication is releasing those boxes, not needing the other person’s labels, and not needing your own. When you go into a communication opportunity with the idea we are making something, rather than you are building on the old, you are going to make a good and powerful difference. Let go of the box—good witch, bad witch—forget it.

Ultimately, Dorothy looks around and says, “Where am I? I want to go home. What do I need to do to go home?” What was she told.

[. . .]

S: Not quite.

She was [. . .] “Well, we don’t know, but maybe the wise . . . I forget now . . . wise person, the Wizard of Oz, will know,” and she then asked, “How do I find him?”

S: Yes, “That’s the sort of question that you must ask the Wizard, and by asking the Wizard, you will have everything that you need.” What happened just there was that she was given a hook, an answer. The—what was the name of the good one?

Glenda.

S: Glenda. Glenda said, “Ah, we’re going to communicate here. I am going to direct my conversation to what she wants. I’m going to make it clear. You want to speak to the Wizard for that.”

Naturally, Dorothy said, “All right, how do I do that?” And there came the famous words. “You . . .”

[Audience] “Follow the yellow brick road.”

S: That’s right, which she did. She said, “All right, I’m going to the . . .“

Emerald City.

S: Emerald City. I knew it wasn’t the Green City, but I was about to go there. “I’m going to the Emerald City to speak to the Wizard. The Wizard is going to give me the information I need.”

And in your life, ultimately, the best and worst thing you do is that.

[To audience about the dog] If you don’t look and don’t touch, you won’t get her agitated. I like her wandering. I like her comments in through it. I adore her energy and her energy working with yours, but you’re mine right now.

So, where was I with that?

Giving power to others.

S: Giving power to others. Yes, dogs, whatever.

Two things, two things—I had to run it backwards a bit—that’s happening with that. The first things that’s happening with that is she is giving up her power. The second thing she’s doing with that is giving up a choice. And the one always, always, follows the other. You give up your power, and then you have no choices. And any time, every time, you are in a situation in which you feel you have no choice, you have given up your power.

On the other hand, in order for her to get what she believed she needed, she had to give up her power, she had to make that choice—or so she believed at the time. And that is to say that in the situations of your life, there are going to be situations in which you feel you have no choice. You even are able to recognize, All right, I can see ways in which I have let go of my power here. But having done that, step back for a moment. Don’t leave yourself at “if only.” Don’t abandon yourself at, “There’s nothing I can do,” because taking that step back, you also can allow yourself to see that taking action on whatever it is that’s there keeps the door open. So it may be that you have given up your power, and it may be that there are no choices, but continuing—Heidi, there is a psychologist’s word for this. Stepping forward, taking action.

Initiative.

Being proactive.

S: That’s the one. Yes. Proactive. Doesn’t that give you a great picture? The master active. The professional active. The constantly changing and always doing proactive person! Isn’t that a good one? Because, ultimately, that’s how you make it through this life. You don’t get caught in the “Oh, big mistake—gave up my power.” You move forward, moment by moment, because sometimes step by step is too much. Moment by moment, doing my version of follow the yellow-brick road—doing the best you can, where you are, with what you have at the moment—moment by moment.

So, Dorothy follows this yellow-brick road. She and her little doggie, too, moves right along the road, and pretty soon she comes to a crossroads. You’ve done everything you can to communicate with this other person—you are eager, you have a lovely and loving relationship, perhaps. It’s not hard to communicate with this other person. You are wandering your life working with people who don’t understand you, and you’re unhappy with it, but . . . or you could probably put four or five other scenarios in attachment to this: You are following the yellow-brick road of your life; you are following the path before you, and the only thing that you have in your favor is a pair of new shoes. Now, that’s a very important statement there, don’t you think? Are you going to tell me?

Well, that means you’ve got a pair of new shoes, I think that you have confidence that you can walk and walk, and your ability to continue.

S: Oh, I like that. That’s nice. More.

Well, if they were Nikes, we would “Just do it.”

S: I like that. I like that. Red sparkle Nikes.

You could have those things where they glow in the dark too, so you could really see when you needed to, because they have shoes that glow in the dark.

S: So hopefully they are gold sparkle . . . red sparkle, glow-in-the-dark Nikes. This is not the direction I was wanting at all.

Maybe you had to let go of something in order to have the new shoes.

S: You are equipped with new shoes; it might mean you lost your old shoes. It means you took on something you had not taken on before, a willingness to move forward with what is required for that journey. She was given those shoes for the yellow-brick road, for that journey.

And you run into difficulty when you are not prepared for that journey. What do you need to make a relationship happen with that person? What do you need to do? How do you do [it]? Well, to go [on] the yellow-brick road, you’ve got to have shiny red shoes. What is it you need to follow your road.

And, of course, there is always the answer that is. “Well, obviously, any time you’re going somewhere new, you’ve got to get a new pair of shoes.”

There comes a crossroad, and all of a sudden Dorothy had to ask, “What do I do? I don’t know where to go. What do I do?” Like many of you, she tended to talk to herself. “What should I do? Oh no, I don’t know what to do! Toto, what should I do?” And, of course, Toto is saying, “Are you going to feed me any more of those things?”

And off in the field, something totally unexpected happens. She hears a voice. “Go that way, or that way.” And she’s looking around. She has no idea where the person is hiding. She almost missed the opportunity, because she wasn’t looking for something out of the ordinary. It never occurred to her that a scarecrow could talk. You’ve got a lot of scarecrows in your life, you know, that you don’t give credit to as an opportunity for learning, for getting what you need. You don’t expect the best. And so, sure enough, you don’t get it. Again, move out of that box. Move out of that box.

Finally, the scarecrow had done enough to get her attention, and the Universe is good that way—keeps making noise until you finally look up and say, “Are you a talking scarecrow?” And what was the scarecrow’s story? The scarecrow was stuffed with straw, and it was his misery in life that he was not able to think at the level he wanted to. He judged himself as not enough, because he was not able to, what? Let’s see, save the world?

He couldn’t scare the crows.

S: He couldn’t even scare the crows. Well, crows are a lot more intelligent than any scarecrow. But that’s my point. You see, that’s the point. By self-judgment, that scarecrow relegated itself into the field on its own, worthy of nothing but attending to a post. And yet, there was so much more there. Now, what’s the miracle in that? The miracle that by the end of the story the scarecrow realized that he really did have brains, or that Dorothy moved out of her box, willing to see what did not necessarily look like a good possibility, that she allowed herself to have a conversation with something that was not in her list of things to do before I die—talk to field creatures. Well, I’d say they’re both miracles.

This is about communication. She heard the voice and ignored it. She heard it again and she ignored it. Until she was at the point that she was no longer able to find an option, did she look beyond her version of reality to see another perspective. You lose a lot of friends, a lot of opportunities, you lose a lot of doorways to freedom by having to have it your way, by refusing to see that your dog might know more than you do, that the scarecrow at the edge of the road might have something to offer you. What are the scarecrows in your life? Who are the people who are invisible to you, because you think that they have nothing to offer you?

She found out something that was very, very important from the scarecrow. What was it? She found out that he was deathly afraid of something.

Fire.

S: Fire. And what does fire represent, insofar as the self—yourself—is concerned? Speaking of the element of fire, it is strong, passionate emotion. Strong passionate emotion, for instance, like anger, fear, the reactive. And interestingly enough, at the absolute opposite of the scale, fire also represents purification and truth. With such great, divergent choices, it’s very, very hard to allow yourself to find balance, because it feels so alive to be angry, to hold a grudge, to hate for all the right reasons. There are not right reasons. Reaction takes you out of yourself and makes you prey, makes you prey, to the whims of passion all around you. Don’t react. Function consciously. Choose your words. Choose your actions.

When Dorothy found out that the scarecrow was afraid of fire, essentially she said, “All right, we’ll do what we can to keep you away from fire, but let’s take this journey together, because as different as you are from me, and as far as your needs are from mine, maybe there’s something we both can gain from this journey together. Here we are, beautiful young human child with farm help.” And you’ve got your own versions of those boxes in your life, and yet Dorothy was wise enough to recognize that what we have in common is a need for this journey. She did that incredible communication technique of looking for what is alike. “What do we have in common,” rather than “How different are we? Let’s focus on the separation,” which is what most do. You’re so busy looking at how they’re different that you’re missing a companion along the way.

The scarecrow and Dorothy and that little dog trotted on down the yellow-brick road, and soon they came to another great crossroads. “All right, which way should we go? What should we do?” And while they were standing there discussing it, off in the distance they heard a sort of a squeaky noise, yes?

Show me oil.

Help me. Help me.

S: And in order for them to hear that they had to be quiet. Now, there’s a very important lesson in communication there. Part of the process is listening. Sometimes you get so caught up in listening to yourself. How many times have you been in a conversation with somebody where you could tell they were just enjoying hearing themselves speak? They weren’t paying attention to you. Have you been to a party, talking to somebody, who you’re standing right in front of them, you’re using your good communication techniques, you’re looking them in the face, you’re feeling yourself filled with love and encouraging them, and instead of talking to you, they’re talking all around the room while they are talking to you. Perhaps looking for an escape? It may not be that blatant in your life, but be aware, because you might be doing that very same thing; you might be guilty of not paying attention any more.

So, two lessons in there: one of them is, to hear that still small voice, you’ve got to listen, and sometimes that means stop talking. Another lesson in there is that when you are talking with somebody, remember that that’s the only way to think it—talking with, not to. “I was talking with Suzie” is a whole different mind[set] than “I was talking to her, you see?”

They found that there were more farm implements out in the woods. It was a rusty person made out of various parts of tin cans, bottles, implements. And it was stuck. Stuck. Having been out on its own for so long, it finally rusted. Hearts rust closed. Do you know people who are so inflexible, so stuck, that they really need to be in their own little world because they are unable to communicate in this one. Be careful that that’s not you.

There was something within this Tin Man though, that would not give up, saw the opportunity in front of him and said, “Look there’s somebody there. Maybe they’ll hear me. And said . . .

Help me! Help!

S: Over and over and over. When the gods have dropped somebody, when the gods have dropped somebody in your journey, ask for help. Ask for help, and then ask for help, and then ask for help.

Turned out the only thing that was needed was a bit of oiling, and that the oil can was just right in front of them, but too far out of reach, not a part of that Tin Man’s rigid reality. He could not bend to get what was needed. You’ve had communications like that, haven’t you? How many of them were the ones where you have looked back on it and said, “That was right in front of me the whole time, wasn’t it?”

The Tin Man was rigid. He was afraid of water. Water, which is the representation of healing, of love, beauty, afraid of the power. And was afraid because he did not believe he had a heart. There will be times in this life in which you feel you don’t have a heart. Unfortunately, most of the time when you feel it, it’s because you choose not to. It hurts too much to read the news. “I’m not going to read it, because it breaks my heart and makes me want to cry, and so I’m going to wall that off.” I’d rather you cried. As fire might be the reactive emotions, water is the softer, flowing ones. As fire is an act, water is a state of consciousness.

And with that Tin Man the three, four, now set off—Toto, too. And Toto, the bright and shining spirit that brought out the best in all of them—we’ll get to that in a moment. Along that road again—the yellow-brick road—they now come to a dark part of the forest. Have they run into the monkeys yet?

No.

S: All right. They come to a dark part of the forest, and they’re worried because, as they discuss their great fears, it gets harder and harder to walk down the road. And please remember the truth of that. [If] you focus on what you’re afraid of, [if] you focus on how scary it is, especially when you’ve got other people with you doing the same thing, you’re going to create the energy of fear that’s so much bigger than you are. They started seeing lions, tigers, bears—oh, my!—what are yours? Sickness, poverty, disempowerment—oh, my. Unwanted, unloved, unhealthy—oh, my. What are yours? Because if you let your fears lead your journey, it only gets darker, it only gets more frightening, it only becomes dangerous, whereas before it might have been uncomfortable, it might have even made you uneasy. But you’ve established a whole new platform by focusing only on what you’re afraid of.

Somewhere in this process, they try to get something to eat, the tree doesn’t appreciate it and gets angry. So, taking for tomorrow—pull it out of your heart and get the whole story right there, and get the meaning of the trees having something to offer, but not asking, just taking—all right, it’s in there, let it float out.

Who will be leading the discussion on this? Louise, ask that question. What for you was the communicating with the trees and apples all about? Because, as a Guardianship, you do that more than any other negative habit that you have. So play with it, think about it, let it whirl around in there.

And then, having gotten through the apple-throwing trees, they come to monkey trees, right?

No, they were in the forest and Toto was loose running around in the woods, and happened to come upon the lion, and then the lion chased the dog, and the dog was running around the tree. And Dorothy was worried about her dog and so she smacked the lion, and the lion started crying.

S: Because the lion was puffery. The lion’s big, mean growl, it’s willingness to hurt others to get what it wanted, was all a front, wasn’t it? Dorothy stood up to the lion, smacked him on the nose, said, “Do not be mean to this little dog. It’s a lot smaller than you are.”

Pick on somebody your own size.

S: Pick on somebody your own size. I should say that to you. Pick on somebody your own size.

The lion needed courage. Love, wisdom, courage, those are the things so far. Love—the Tin Man; wisdom—the scarecrow; courage—the lion. The keys to communication in this world. It starts with love. Only then do you activate the whole journey. I want, I have this vision, here is what I need, let’s go. A willingness to accept others on the path. A willingness to ask for help. Unity. Coming together with what you have in common. All of that is love. But insofar as communication flows, first you have thinking things through and being responsible for what you know and not prejudging, not assuming. You have looking at what’s right in front of you, not being so rigid that you cannot see what’s needed in the situation. You have seeking companionship, instead of scaring them off because that fits your fear.

Together they all went on to the Emerald City. They had many adventures on the way, but when they got eventually to the Emerald City, two things were required of them. One of them was, they had to clean up. I like that. Take a few lessons with that one, too, while you’re at it. All right? They had to become presentable for where they were and the customs of the culture at that time. They had to become what could be listened to, and sometimes that’s what you’ve got to do to make a relationship work, to get what you want. You’ve got to change the language a little. You become adaptable. You don’t give up truth, but you allow yourself to seek what is common.

This great horrifying movie [Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ] that’s out right now is such an easy doorway if you’re choosing to bridge. Remember that.

They had to get cleaned up. And the second thing that they had to do was to go into the Wizard and once again ask. And the Wizard said, “No, you’re not worthy of help until you do this special act.” And Dorothy didn’t like that. “It’s not fair, you can’t do that to me. We’ve come all this way. We’ve done all this work. It should be enough.” But the Wizard knew that they weren’t ready yet. The whole purpose of the journey is to make you strong enough to manage what’s at the end of the journey. The whole purpose in communing with another is to become a unit, so that what ultimately you are working for together, you will be strong enough for it.

With this incredibly long tale made even shorter, they went to get the broomstick of that poor stereotypic creature that was the sister of the one she killed when she came to that land, and all of those experiences made each of them learn to rely on each other, in spite of their fears, willing to take a risk because they were not in it all by themselves. They had expressed their deeply seated needs and found that their friends could be of help. When the wicked witch put the scarecrow on fire, the friends put the fire out. They helped each other live. They helped each other do the tasks in front of them. They helped each other do what was needed to get what they wanted when they went where they had to go. They needed each other.

And ultimately, when they got back to the Wizard with that broomstick, the Wizard said, “Uh-oh, what now?” and was ready to send them off again. But Dorothy was very unhappy about that, and her companions were very unhappy about that, and they all stood up together and said, “Here is what you said, and we have done what you asked.” That may not have been a compassionate confrontation, but in every form of communication, right there is the key to every confrontation. The first one is, you recognize that there is a compact. “You said this. We agreed. We did what we said we would. Now you do what you said you would.” If you do not have that clear compact, then you deserve to be walked over, you deserve to be stuck out at the end. You get it that clear. Here is what you want. Here is what I want. Here is what we’re going to do to bring that about. I want my groceries to be checked out nicely. You want to have a pleasant, not painful, experience doing it. That simple, even.

That confrontation ultimately led to a good end, but the response that that team got was what? Flustering, and not knowing what to say, and a lot of arguing with the old point, and an inflexible Great Oz trying to come up with another reason by yelling, and bullying, justification, which are the sorts of tactics that you get when you force somebody into a corner and they’re going to have to give what they don’t have. It was a good thing in that case.

But even standing their ground to the upset and blustering Wizard, it was the little dog that actually saved the day. That little spirit that throughout the story has been a catalyst for events, for experiences they had. You’ve got little dogs in your life, too. And maybe they don’t have fur and four feet, but they are catalysts, the pattern that leads you into that which helps and heals, or leads you into trouble. Look for Toto.

Toto grabbed the curtain, opened it, so that it became very clear that the great and mighty Wizard of Oz was not a great, flaming . . .

Head.

S: Humpty Dumpty head, it was somebody that was really good at getting their point across. And the response: rather than relief and rejoicing, it was “Oh great, we’re really stuck now. You’re not a wizard. I’ll never get home. Let’s just see the worst that’s possible. Let’s pout and be upset and be angry and frustrated.” And the Wizard, if you will, said, “Well, hold off a minute. Didn’t you really get what you were after? On this journey, in this relationship, through this communication, did you not learn that you have wisdom you don’t even begin to understand, but it’s there. Have you not learned that you have a heart, and that it’s safe to unshutter it? Have you learned that you’ve got more courage, and strength, and power, and grace than you ever thought possible? Have you learned that? Then you have indeed fulfilled your journey.”

And Dorothy is saying, “Well, wait a minute. I’m not home yet.” And what did the Wizard say? I love this one. The Wizard said, “Oh, too bad, because I can’t help you there.” She had to look elsewhere. She had to allow herself to be content with “no.” She had to be willing not to have it her way. All right, all my friends are getting everything, why aren’t I?

Until Glenda returned, until perhaps Dorothy remembered what worked in the past and was willing to say, “All right.” And poof! Glenda appears, and says, “Dorothy, why are you so sad?” And, of course, Dorothy sniffed and said, [crying] “Oh, I’m not sad. I’m fine. My friends are all doing very, very well, and I’m so grateful. All I want is this tiny little thing. I want everything in the world to go my way. Is that so much to ask?” And Glenda said, “Dorothy, you’ve had it all along. You just click your heels together three times, and you say so be it, so . . . no, not that one! And you say, there is no place like home, there is home any place. There is no place like home. No place is a lot like home.”

And about that time she woke up as if she had been sleeping in bed, and she said, “I have gone on an incredible journey. I have learned marvelous things, and look my life is not over. I have versions of these friends. I can continue with my learning process, because in everybody you meet there is the Scarecrow and the Tin Man and the Lion, and that journey to Oz and back home again.” Because that’s what this journey’s about, and that’s what all of the costumed people around you are about. At any given time they may appear to be the Scarecrow—maybe for a few of you the Munchkins. I won’t name names, of course. It might be your time to move through the dark forest, to fight off the evil monkeys, to take a break and look at your future and choose to act rather than react, to move through the slow slog of day-to-day experience until you finally do it in your sleep, and the Universe has to intervene and dump ice on you, snow, in the poppy field.

It’s always a challenge to open your heart to others. And ultimately, in the whole journey what you learn is you had what you needed all the time, but all that you have gone through has brought it out into a reality you can accept and understand and use, and that is what you are here for.

It is not a story about a wonderful wizard. It’s a story of taking communication to communion, of becoming the wizard.

Have fun with that. Think it through. Louise will give you the pop quiz.

It’s a very powerful month, make use of it.

Glochanumora.