“Poppies, Poppies will put them to sleep. Sleep. Now they’ll sleep.”
----The Wicked Witch of the East
It’s spring and in Southern California that means the poppies are sprouting alongside the freeways and medians, their bright orange flowers are gorgeous eye candy as we dash from one thing to the next. It was a field of poppies that almost kept Dorothy from reaching Emerald City. Caught up in their beauty, Dorothy runs through them, encouraging her friends to come along, distracted by their beauty, she falls asleep in the middle of the field, her goal still far away.
If you remember it was Dorothy and the Lion that went to sleep, think of Dorothy as your sense of self and let the Lion characterize your courage. This beautiful field of poppies has made you lose consciousness, focus. It was the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, the heart and brain that kept running toward Emerald City, noticing after a bit that Dorothy and the Lion were no longer with them. Notice that they were unaffected by the somnolent spell of the poppies, and that they pressed on toward the goal.
We all have our “field of poppies” a place in life where we can see our dreams and then unemployment, divorce, a sick parent or child, a break-up or it could be a marriage, a new baby, a new relationship, a new job, appears just as Emerald City comes into view. We lose sight. We get distracted. We stop running. We fall asleep.
And then something wonderful happens, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man, the heart and the brain come back, because even though Dorothy (you) have been lulled into a coma by whatever circumstance, the heart and brain are unaffected and can still see your dream clearly. And even though courage, the hardest to wake up and the heaviest to carry is asleep as well, that doesn’t stop the heart and brain from doing whatever is necessary to get everyone back on track, including calling on Glenda, (The Good Witch). That would be the same as asking for help, finding like-minded people, doing whatever it takes to wake up.
My field, or shall I say fields of poppies has been almost everything named above. What’s yours? Courage has come in fits and starts, but my heart and brain have never let me forget my dreams and goals.
To Oz? To Oz!
Something spectacular is just around the bend…