Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Somewhere over the Rainbow by GypsyOwl

I grew up watching The Wizard of Oz at least once a year since I was a little girl. This year I watched Tin Man (an original Sci-Fi Channel mini-series released in December 2007). I have watched it about three times this year and hope to have an opportunity to see it again, read the screenplay, and to nourish this thirst that I have for the deeper meaning that is hidden within this story.

If you have ever believed that everything would be better; if only you were in a different place, with different people, in different circumstances, you are not alone; perhaps you have also heard that ‘where ever we go, there we are’ which brings me to wonder if we are suppose to find that hidden place ‘somewhere over the rainbow’ or are we ‘suppose’ to stay where we are no matter what?

I have learned that we each have a ‘light’ hidden within us, waiting for the chance to brighten up every dark place, everywhere, no matter where we are. It is waiting for us to find it, to allow it to guide us through whatever our circumstance is at the moment or to guide us to wherever we are going on our path (our journey, our calling). We do not need to find the place ‘somewhere over the rainbow’ in order to use this light. DG’s mother said “The secret to finding it now lives inside you”. She had purposely hidden DG’s light so skillfully that even DG couldn’t see it herself. The light was hidden, the secrets were hidden, and the strength to walk through the darkness was hidden from her.

I realized that we are all like this; we have a light that flows through us. I wondered why our light was hidden; how it became this way, and when do we learn to let this light shine (or ‘flow through us’) to assist us in our lives right where we are or to guide us to where we are suppose to be?

Why is our light hidden? There are several possibilities for this; here are a couple of them.
1. Sometimes our light is hidden for us by our protectors when we are children. In the ‘Tin Man’, DG’s mother whispers the secret of how to find the emerald into her ear and uses magic to hide it there. In everyday life, the magic at work is love. Loving adults find ways to help children hide their light because they are protecting them from the darkness, allowing their light to grow strong before having to confront the things that they are called to transform. These efforts are well meaning. Yet we find a time in our lives when the protections that we needed as children are standing in the way of us reaching our goals as adults. In some cases, these obstacles actually affect our health and well being. We must find a way to let our light shine, to let it flow through us now.

2. Sometimes we hide our light from the world and from ourselves. I am sure there are hundreds of reasons for this. We may feel overwhelmed by the darkness (not always evil. Sometimes a circumstance that is more challenging than we are prepared to handle. Sometimes, the challenges that we are hiding from are not our own. Sometimes they belong to our elders and we protect ourselves from them while we are children) “Remember what it felt like, when you were a little girl, to have the light flow through you”~Ahamo, The Seeker (DG’s father)

We can dream of that special place ‘somewhere over the rainbow’, we can romanticize what it will be like once we get there, and we can ‘feel’ better when we are thinking about it. However, when we find out that the light that flows through us must find a way to brighten the place that we are at, or that the light will guide us to where we are suppose to be, then suddenly we are able to transform anyplace into the vision of that dream place that lies ‘somewhere’ else.
I believe that each one of us has a ‘light’ that is within us, that at some point may be hidden or we have found it and are learning to use it in our daily lives. My fondest wish is that each of us find and learn to use the light so that we will be better prepared to walk through our journey’s with courage, love, and wisdom.

May each of us have a Light Filled Christmas!