Anchors

What anchors you?  Is it your routine, a practice, a person, family, community, nature,  music, movement, or spirituality? Perhaps it is all or none of these.  Maybe you haven't found your anchors yet.  Anchors have been traditionally used to moor a ship to provide stability in a storm so the ship doesn't get tossed off course or further out to sea.  Our anchors can make the difference between thriving and surviving, feeling supported or disconnected, grounded or untethered, rested or restless.   In the moment, we may not always be aware of their function of holding us firmly planted on the ground.

The Wizard of Oz has been a favorite story of mine.  There have been many interpretations of this story over the years from political analogies to spiritual inspiration.  What if the Wizard of Oz, through the character Dorothy, is a story about finding what anchors us and how we can use these anchors, as Dorothy did to come back to her center of ease.  We can use anchors to maneuver our way through all the storms of our lives and to gain the resolve to feel grounded and at home where we are as the storms continue to ebb and flow.

If you’re not familiar with the story of The Wizard of Oz it is about a young girl named Dorothy, from Kansas,who along with her dog Toto, gets displaced from home in a storm. They are without family, connection, and support, and have forgotten how to navigate life's discord.   Dorothy is told to follow the yellow brick road to see the Wizard who would help her find her way.  On route to Oz, she encounters a Lion, A Tinman, and Scarecrow. They all decide to accompany her to see the Wizard. The Lion hopes to receive courage from the Wizard, the Tinman a heart, and the Scarecrow a brain.   When they finally meet the Wizard, he says they must retrieve the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West before he would grant their wishes.   After doing so, they return to Oz and the Wizard makes certificates and awards for the Lion, Tinman, and Scarecrow, to prove they have had their wishes fulfilled.  He gives Dorothy a pair of Ruby Slippers which represent her own anchor and explains that they will help her get back to Kansas.  Glinda the Good Witch, who is also part of the story and the one who assisted in retrieving the broom of the evil witch, tells Dorothy that she could get back home all along, she just had to believe. In other words, she had to come back to what anchors her.

Dorothy could be me; she could be you; she could be anyone who gets swept up in the inevitable storms of life over and over again. Dorothy, like us, just wants to stay grounded and rooted and find her way back to a stable center,  which home and Kansas mean for her.  She really wants to be at ease with herself and her people but she gets thrown off course by the storm that arises. Sometimes even more than one storm may be brewing at a time, as with Dorothy, when she not only has to find her way home but also has to engage in conflict with the Wicked Witch.  Like we all may feel at times,  Dorothy feels disempowered and unsure of her ability to meet her needs herself and how to disengage from the storms around her and not be swept up in the chaos.   Dorothy’s interactions with others, caught in their own storms, further confirm for her that she needs to continue pursuing support outside of herself, as we often do. She brings along the others, the Tinman, Scarecrow, and the Lion, who represent her own untethered heart, mind, and spirit. She follows the critics or well-intentioned guides and tries to gain their support. Dorothy follows the yellow brick road, pursues the broom of the wicked witch, and journeys to Oz to receive his wisdom and magic, being pulled into more storms along the way.

This is where Dorothy finds the truth and affirmation that we may be seeking in our own lives. Dorothy realizes,  that the yellow brick road is just a linear, progressive path set by others' timelines that have not shared her lived experiences or ours.   She sees that her own heart, mind, and spirit experience is where she needs to stay rooted.  After seeking advice from others, who were considered to have all the answers, she understands that regardless of their good intentions, it was her practice, her people, and her experience that would bring her home.   The Ruby Slippers she receives represent the anchor that brings a  moment of clarity and remembering that can lead her to a place of balance in the storm.    I love Dorothy and all she represents. I love that she shows us our path is not linear,  our experiences are our own, we are never alone, and that we have many anchors within and around us to provide both grace and stability through the moments of imbalance in our lives. 

 When you are being hard on yourself for getting off course or being swept up by the latest storm, let Dorothy remind you that it is all a practice and that you are the guide, light and anchor keeping you coming back to yourself and navigating the storms of life.