by Julianne Smith

Created on: November 19, 2008

"There's no place like home. There's no place like home." She repeats to herself as she hopes to return to Kansas again. Our beloved Dorothy desires so much to make her way back home after not only meeting some of the most influential "people" in her life, but also after experiencing some of the most dangerous of things. I like to look at my spiritual Journey a little like Dorothy's Journey to Emerald City. Each character represents a person in my life that has in some way impacted my life or my spirituality, and each event resembling a time of influence either in a positive or a negative way. Like in the Wizard of Oz, my spiritual journey has come from many different angles and experiences that one might not expect. Spirituality is, in my opinion, formed by four things which I will clearly identify through characters in my spiritual journey to the "land of" God: experience, influence, and faith.

It is in those moments when Dorothy feels most desolated that she gains insight of something she may not have known before, or she embarks on a journey which she never intended to begin, or she meets people whom she never could have guessed she would have befriended; people who end up impacting her greatly. Like Dorothy, I too have gained insight from my moments of desolation and come to appreciate them. Though rough patches appear in the road along the way, in my teenage years they seemed to appear more often than not. Dorothy experienced a tornado; I had a dad who left, who didn't pay child support, who cheated, and who had a whole new family of his own still we went to church while mom worked two jobs to support us. Dorothy's house lands on the Wicked Witch of the East; the fighting, bitching, and screaming between mom and "dad's" pending divorce is finally over. Although at that time I may not have been old enough to comprehend, "Daddy is gone." Was a positive aspect, as I look back on it now, I feel as if maybe God was protecting me from the harmful aspects that came with my fathers past, present, and future addictions to drugs and alcohol. My life starts to get a little bit clearer, and the tears lessen after more time spent enjoying myself at school, making new friends, and of course being enrolled in Epiphany Catholic School. Upon landing in this mysterious world, rather than being frightened, I took the opportunity at another chance to be happy and I filled my life with adventures, tragedy, laughter, and tears along with friends, family members, and those whom

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>