If I Only Had a Heart

!±8± If I Only Had a Heart

I know you probably have heard of the movie,
"The Wizard of Oz" right? Well, for those of you,
who have somehow managed to miss this movie,
let me give you a brief description of it.

A young lady named Dorothy is upset with her
home life and decides to run away. But before
she can get very far, a tornado strikes. Her
entire house flies away in the cyclone. She
lands in a land called Oz.

Now, all of a sudden, Dorothy wants to get home.
When she was home, she wanted to run away. Isn't
that just like us? We are never happy.

Anyway, she learns that the only person who
could help her get home is The Wizard and he
lives in Emerald City (am I confusing The Wizard
of Oz with The Wiz?)

Nevertheless, on her journey to meet
The Wizard, she meets a scarecrow,
a tin man and a lion, each of who decides
to join her on her journey to meet The Wizard.
They figured if he was going to do something
for her, then perhaps he could do something
for them too.

See the scarecrow needed a brain. The tin man
needed a heart and the lion needed courage.
They figured The Wizard would be able to give
them what they needed.

They take you through this long journey through
The Land of Oz, where it becomes apparent to
everyone except the individual that he already
has exactly what he is looking for but he doesn't
believe he has it.

The scarecrow, who believed he didn't have
a brain, was the one who came up with all
the ideas and was able to defeat The Wicked
Witch of the West (or was it East?)

The tin man was so sensitive and cried so
much that everyone but him could tell he
had a heart of gold and the lion, defended
and defeated everyone who came in their path.
He, too, had what he was looking for--courage.

I tell this story because I was watching it
the other day with Erica and Eli and it reminded
me about how so many of us are today.

We settle for anything and everything because
we believe we do not have what it takes to be
successful. We believe we are not skilled,
or smart enough, or strong enough to get the
job done. Yet, if we were to ask others, people
who know us well, what they thought we were good
at, they could run off an entire list of things
that we can do well. And, when we hear the list
of things that others think we excel at, we
deny it. We say, "No, not me. I couldn't do that.
For real? You think so?" We find it hard to believe.

So we continue to search for The Wizard.
And when we find him, we discover that he
is just a nice, old man standing behind
curtains working a Wizard machine and that
everything we ever needed was right inside
of us all along.

What are you seeking that appears to be
out of reach?

What do you desire for your life?

What do you really wish to do but feel
you do not have what it takes to accomplish it?

Chances are you do have it. You already have
all that you will ever need to be the person
you desire to be. All it takes is for you to
recognize it, claim it, and visualize your
way to success.

See, in the movie The Wizard of Oz it wasn't
until The Wizard, or nice, old man behind
the curtains gave the scarecrow a piece of paper,
the tin man a golden locket, and the lion a medal
of honor, that they started to believe in themselves.

Are you that person who needs a picture-framed
diploma hanging around your office before you
believe you have what it takes?

Then make one up yourself.

You have a computer. You can put together a
certificate. Make it say whatever you want
it to say. Say something like, "I, Dawn Fields,
am certified to Do, Be and Have ANYTHING I desire.
I am fully capable and able to do whatever it
is that I wish to do with my life--RIGHT NOW,
in this VERY moment. So long as I invite the
God that is within to go along for the ride."

Now go out and be the best that you can be.