“I always did like flowers, said the Lion. They seem so helpless and frail.” —L. Frank Baum
Call me a Kansas girl. I wasn’t born here, but I was raised in the Great Plains, and Kansas will always feel like home. There are few books I’ve read more than once, but The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is one of them. There’s just something about the magic of that story that never fails to brighten my day.
L. Frank Baum said it best in his introduction:
“It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.”
And that’s exactly what this book gives me—wonderment, joy, and a sense of peace. I’ve read it with my own eyes, listened to it as an audiobook, and I own more than a few copies. But I have to admit: the Audible version narrated by Anne Hathaway might be my favorite. Her inflection, the voices she gives to the characters, the passion she reads with—it’s magical. I was chatting with my husband about it the other day, going on (again) about how joyful it is to listen to her bring the story to life. He just smiled—he’s heard my Wizard of Oz rants more times than he can count.
A few minutes later, I looked at him and said, “She made it home.”
He looked a little confused. “What?”
“Dorothy,” I said. Spoiler alert: “She made it home.”
He just shook his head and smiled.
But that moment stuck with me. Because making it home isn’t just Dorothy’s journey—it’s all of ours. Sometimes we get lost. In a job. In a relationship. In grief. In our faith. We encounter great enemies along the way. Sometimes we lay down and just want to sleep. Sometimes life feels like a cyclone, and sometimes, we look for someone—anyone—great and powerful to fix it all for us. And still, through it all, we move forward. There are people we meet on our journey who become part of our story. They’re the ones who help us go from one moment to the next. They might not stay forever, but they are vital. One of my favorite quotes comes from the movie Just Married:
“You never see the hard days in the photo album, but those are the ones that get you from one happy snapshot to the next.”
It’s true. The hard days are the bridge between the light, even though they rarely make the highlight reel. So here’s a question worth asking:
Who are the people in your life who help you when you’ve wandered off the path? Who can you reach out to when things feel too heavy to carry alone? Surround yourself with them. Hold them close. But also remember: you have the power within you to find your way back home.
The truth is, the famous quote “There’s no place like home” isn’t even in the original book. Dorothy never says it. She also doesn’t wear ruby red slippers—but that’s a conversation for another day. Still, the meaning holds. Getting home is the goal. And for many of us, home is more than a place. It’s a feeling. It’s peace. It’s sanctuary.
My fun collections over the years, did I say I owned a “few” copies of the book?
For some reason I have always been drawn
to the lion. “Put ‘em up, Put ‘em up!”
So take the journey. Face the witches. Walk the Yellow Brick Road. But when it’s time, I hope you find your way back home, too.
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