No place like home

Tonight, I tried to save a friend who's been drowning for so very long. I reminded her that all this struggle and turmoil that gets put in front of us makes the other side seem so much better once we push through to it. I confessed that I don't believe in God; somedays, I wish I did so I could simply say, "just put your trust in Him/Her." Instead, I have come to believe we each hold the answer to all our problems deep inside ourselves, when we can quiet all the noise. It is my Glinda the Good Witch belief system, based on the final movie scene when she reconnects with Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz. It sums up, for me, what religion should be based on... what the search for one's own moral compass is all about. (I wish I could trust in it more often, and silence the daily voices in my head that keep whispering in my ear, telling me contrary advise.) No...truly, this is what it all comes down to:

Dorothy: Oh, will you help me? Can you help me?
Glinda: You don't need to be helped any longer. You've always had the power to go back to Kansas.
Dorothy: I have?
Scarecrow: Then why didn't you tell her before?
Glinda: She wouldn't have believed me. She had to learn it for herself.
Scarecrow: What have you learned, Dorothy?
Dorothy: Well, I - I think that it, that is wasn't enough to want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em - and it's that - if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own backyard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?
Glinda: That's all it is!
Scarecrow: But that's so easy! I should've thought of it for you -
Tin Man: I should have felt it in my heart -
Glinda: No, she had to find it out for herself. Now those magic slippers will take you home in two seconds!
Dorothy: Oh! Toto, too?
Glinda: Toto, too!
Dorothy: Now?
Glinda: Whenever you wish.
.........
Glinda: Then close your eyes and tap your heels together three times. And think to yourself, "There's no place like home."

To me, the message is you never have to look outside yourself for the answers you seek; they were always there inside of you, if you only take the time to look. It also reminds me that, if we can remember to be grateful for the all the riches in our lives, we don't have to look or ask for more to be happy. Look inside for the quieted self for answers, and be grateful for all your blessings.