about surrendering.
In the Wizard of OZ when Dorothy and her companions — The Scarecrow, The Tin Woodsman, and The Cowardly Lion — leave the Wash and Brush Up Shop in the Emerald City, they see the Wicked Witch of the West use her broom to write these words across the sky.
Anyone, who’s seen the movie or read the books, knows that Dorothy was dreaming the story and that the characters were people from her life. You could say that, like the rest of us, Dorothy was solving a problem in her unconscious while she slept. That thought makes me wonder . . .
What if Dorothy’s mind was talking TO her, not ABOUT her.
The original phrase was intended to be “Surrender Dorothy or Die, WWW.”
Surrender or Die.
Since I was so very short, the word surrender has meant failure. I’ve only now begun to see it as something brave.
I think of the struggles I’ve fought to prove myself. It’s been a continuous battle to keep from giving myself away. So many times I held my ground, when no one was trying to take it. How could I see that, when I didn’t look in their direction? Championing my needs — to feel visible, valuable, and mighty — was a full-time job. It seemed a good fight.
Surrendering is harder than fighting.
Surrender? Never.
To surrender I have to lay down the defense that protects me. If I let go, I can’t lean on my pain. I can’t lean on my past. I can’t rely on them to explain when I wasn’t at my best. I’m back to learning about life again. Risks.
Surrendering is easier than fighting.
Sure, some fool, some jerk could rush in to knock me down, but they do that anyway. I’m not an inexperienced child. I can choose how close to let them come.
To me it only makes sense that to give up the fight, Dorothy had to make friends with courage, heart, and brains.
“Surrender Dorothy.”
“There’s no place like home.”
Courage, heart, and brains. OZ let us know we all have them. Can we bear to believe that we’re visible, valuable, and mighty?
Surrender myself.
