“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy
tales.” – Albert Einstein.
When my daughter was in the fourth grade she wanted to dress as Dorothy for the Halloween Party at
school. I remember staying up late making the dress. She looked so cute if I may say so. I was reminded of the famous land of Oz.
Every year from the 80s into the 90s until home video became a thing, around the month of January or February, the movie with Judy Garland ‘Wizard of Oz’ played on TV. I watched it every year not only for entertainment but to relate and understand. The movie begins in brown and white, then a huge tornado caught Dorothy and took her to Oz. As she steps into the dream, everything turns into colors. Blue dress, Red shoes and Yellow brick road. I felt like a kid. It was fascinating and beautiful with music, munchkins, and talking scarecrow with a brain of straw. It also has the wicked witch. I remembered the sense of foreboding moments even before the wicked witch sticks her head out.
But was it a dream!!
There’s affinity in every story. Dream or no dream. Fiction or nonfiction.
The story of Dorothy is, to me, a journey to maturity… from trauma, ignorance, shame, and fear to finding that you were born with intelligence, courage, and Will (power to choose).
We can’t escape tornados (traumas) in life. Traumas can take you on a journey to wellness.
My mentor said “Story is the language of the heart. Stories nourish us. All the great stories pretty much follow the same story line. Good and evil.”
It is in reading fairy tales and novels that we can train ourselves to focus, increase our memories, our empathy (compassion) more communication skills.
It’s like the story of Abraham. God told Abram to leave his home and go to the unknown. God promised him a land for his own. It was a long journey to the promise land. Our promise land is not only heaven but healthier mind, soul, and heart. For more tornados will come and we will be able to go through them and come out on the other side a better person of intelligence, courage, and strength and faith, trusting the invisible indwelling LORD.
A person finds joy in giving an apt reply- and how good is a timely word! Proverbs 15:23 ]0<1!!