In the “Wizard of Oz,” just before Dorothy is whisked back to Kansas as she chants, “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home,” Glinda the Good Witch tells Dorothy and the Scarecrow:
Glinda: “You don’t need to be helped any longer. You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas.”
Dorothy: “I have?”
Scarecrow: “Then why didn’t you tell her before?”
Glinda: “Because she wouldn’t have believed me. She had to learn it for herself.”
I’ve been on retreat now for nearly 2 months, mostly alone in the mountains of Tahoe Forest and I have often thought, “I want to go home,” yet this week, I have wondered what it is at “home” that I am looking for. Yes, I really liked having Thai, Mexican, pizza, pub, Indian, Vietnamese and a dozen other restaurants, CVS, 7-11, jewelry and electronic stores, the $1 Store and Victoria’s Secret within walking distance. I had my choice of 30 bootcamp classes every morning and a variety of meditation and cycling classes at night. Yet, what I have really missed is the people who attended my spiritual community, neighbors and friends. When I was with them, I felt loved, I felt important, cared for and needed. None of those things are bad, but when I am relying on my outside circumstances to feel those things, then the problem arises.
In “A Course in Miracles” Lesson 77, it affirms that “The Kingdom of God is within.” What does that mean? It means that as a Child of God, we are One with God/Love, that everything Love is, is within us. I don’t need to look outside of myself for anything - because Peace, Happiness, Joy, etc. are all within me. Sometimes, we forget who we are. We get confused and think that we are limited beings in these bodies. Yet, Truth says we are perfect, whole and complete, as expressions of Perfect Love. We just have to remember that and when our thoughts say differently, question them and know that we don’t need to listen to the voices in our heads, but make a choice to think differently so we can feel happy and free, yet it’s something that we can only know is true as we experience it ourselves. Like Dorothy, we can always find that we had the magic to go home when we are willing to look within.