THE EMERALD CITY

emerald city

For a long time, I have been trying to get home.  Every path I take gets me closer,  and I can now see it off in the horizon.  It looks just like the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz, and I am Dorothy wearing the ruby slippers. I have met some good witches along the way who have helped guide me, and I have met some bad ones who have deceived me.  I also believe there is a phony magician behind a curtain that everyone else thinks is God.

I have been walking all by myself for a while, but now the Cowardly Lion (with his tail between his hands) has come to join me.  He locks his arm in mine, and we begin to dance down the yellow brick road.  We only go a short distance, though, before Toto catches up with us.  He is barking and nipping at our legs, trying to get us to stop.  When we look back, I see the Scarecrow in a field stuffing straw into his shirt.  With each bundle he adds, he begins to stand up straighter.  I see him check himself out in a mirror, and he is admiring how full his chest looks now.  Then he checks out his backside also, and he is pleased with what he sees and his face is smiling.  He is thinking about me and the Lion and wants to join us.  So he begins to walk down the path toward us, stopping every now and then to fill himself up with more straw.  No matter how much straw he adds, he needs MORE because of the Tin Man, who is always setting the Scarecrow on fire and making him start all over again. 

When I look for the Tin Man, I see him even further back on the path.  He is sitting under a tree with his head down and a tear falling down his face.  He sits there for a while, surrounded by burning ashes and feeling sorry for himself.  Then he stands up, and with his hands on his hips, he looks down the road toward us.  He begins to kick stones, but instead of looking forward, he looks first to the left and then to the right and considers his options.  If he takes the path to the left, he will go into a dark forest of trees with only white bark and become Vladimir Putin.  But if he takes the path to the right, he will enter a dark forest of trees with only black bark and become Robert Mugabe.  If he is able to take one step forward, however, I see his body become a checkerboard of black and white.  The more steps he takes, the more his skin color is erased and the larger his heart will grow.   As an eraser wipes out the last bit of color from his flesh, I see the sun come out and Jesus emerges.  He is now walking very briskly toward the Emerald City, but out of the corner of his eye, he sees a white rabbit caught in some brush.  He stops to let it free, and then I see them both walking side by side as they fade off into the distance.

Copyright © 2013 (Michelle Parsons, Getting Back on Your Path). All Rights Reserved.

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