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Searching for What Already Exists Springs Flow

Looking for Flow Within Best Bet

When we follow Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road, we literally flow with her from one new meeting to the next of travel companions. Each one thinks she or he needs to find it somewhere with the help of someone else who knows where to find what was needed. Are we not the same at the times? Don’t we all have the same desires for abstract things? Is it a home, like Dorothy? A brain, like Scarecrow? Or, perhaps a heart like Tin Man or courage, like the Cowardly Lion? While the three Ozian characters receive token items from the Wizard, did they really need the props?

Learning a Lesson from Dorothy

We have discussed that Dorothy indeed had the power all along to transport herself to Kansas. If you missed that, then read it here: https://wewriteitright.com/travel-golden-path-to-flow/ What we can speculate is that the other characters, too, had the means to self-reveal wisdom, sentimentality, and courage through their own experiences. Flow is universal, after all, and we watch Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion look on with wonder as Dorothy sets about the simple task of leading herself home with a few clicks of her heels.

Find your courage, wisdom, heart, and, yes, home within your memories.

Your Turn

Take out your journal . Quietly consider some of these questions that are designed to lead you back to your sense of self:

  • What was your favorite board game as a child? Was it Candyland? Chutes and Ladders? Mystery Date? Regardless of the journey, jot down some impressions on what games you played alone or with others.
  • How did those adventures in the games make you feel?
  • What were you favorite activities outside as a child? Did you hit the swings? Climb trees? Or play Red Rover or Freeze Tag?
  • When you needed to be alone as a child where did you go? Under your bed? In a closet? Out in the woods?

Record what you remember. Your own voice on paper will lead you home.

Here’s to growing your flow,

Marisa

 

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How Hunger Leads to Flow

Dorothy’s Hunger Heads to Flow

Dorothy’s hunger is real. And we all know why: her last bite to eat was a crueler that Antie Em brought out to her and the farm hands. She has fled and returned home with Toto. She’s weathered a storm, a curious ride inside a cyclone, and an encounter with not one, not two, but three witches! She’s given a gigantic lollipop from the Lollipop Guild members, but didn’t have the opportunity to enjoy it. And, she has met and helped Scarecrow. Let’s face it – Dorothy is famished. And that hunger is what leads to action.

Dorothy’s hunger leads her to flow.

Hunger is a Powerful Motivator

Hunger leads Dorothy, now with Scarecrow, down the Yellow Brick Road to an orchard of apple trees. But, Dorothy being Dorothy, she forgets she isn’t in Kansas. She reaches right up and snaps what appears to be a MacIntosh, right form the branch. Nothing seems unusual about that action, except the tree is under the Wicked Witch of the West’s spell. And as such her hunger is met with a slap of the hand and a gruff reply: “What do you think you are doing?” She is in shock and dismayed that a tree would slap and talk to her. “I forgot that I’m not in Kansas,” she says almost to herself. Dorothy and Scarecrow flee after Scarecrow insults the brut of an apple tree with, “Com’n Dorothy, we don’t want those apples. They probably have little worms in them!” The shocking incident seems to quell her hunger, yet onward the travelers to meet the other characters along the road.

We’ve all had cravings at times. Our hunger may be creative. And, like Dorothy, we may have been insulted or deprived of our means of satisfying that hunger by an unwitting friend  a jealous teacher, or a uneducated parent. Perhaps we, too, had something on us, like Dorothy’s lollipop, which we have forgotten about in the chaos of an event. We keep heading forward in a flow driven by hunger where our senses are heightened. And our feelings may become raw.

Your Turn

How do you satisfy creative hunger? Take out your journal and make a list of 20 ways you can soothe your yearnings with simple activities. Here are a few to help you along with the task:

  • sketching in a notebook
  • skipping stones along the shore
  • walking through a local museum
  • using good china for a cup of tea
  • writing a silly limerick or two

Here’s to growing your flow!

Marisa

 

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TinMan’s Gratitude Grows Flow

Register Emotion with TinMan’s Flow

TinMan is literally rusted in place when we meet him along the Yellow Brick Road. He knows he needs help, but is literally and figuratively stuck in place until help arrives. And arrives it does in the form of two travelers going to Oz with problems of their own. Haven’t we all had a sense of grinding writer’s block that seems to freeze us in anger, fear, or resentment?

Want to grow your flow? Take a cue from the TinMan, who used appreciation to lead to flow.

Grab the Oil Can of Helpers

Just like us, Dorothy and Scarecrow are vulnerable. TinMan is no exception. They find  him rusted shut. Yet, TinMan is tenacious in his quest to speak and repeats, “Oil Can!”, in muffled speech until the Scarecrow recognizes the TimMan’s need for oiled joints. Upon application of the oil, TinMan is grateful to be moving again. He may be creaky, but his radiant smile shows his gratitude to his peers as he links arms with Dorothy and Scarecrow and dances down the road. In a sense, we all have had experiences like TinMan. We stay stuck until we find a critique group or writing mentor or online workshops to help move us forward on our creative trail. It all begins with the willingness to ask for assistance along the path. One great resource is found in the International Women’s Writing Guild’s Digital Village. Learn more about the Digital Village here: https://www.iwwg.org/digital-village/

Risk Heartbreak for Experience

In the last scene shot in Oz, Dorothy, her friends, and Glinda are all on the platform where Professor Marvel’s balloon has just launched. Glinda lets Dorothy know Kansas is as close as a few clicks of her heels. She begins her tearful goodbyes. As she hugs TinMan, he exhibits a flow of painful emotion, which most of us would call grief. Now I know I have a heart, cause its breaking. Dorothy hands him back his oil can so he won’t rust up again. In doing so, we know he and his friends will go on with their duties in Oz. He has come a long way from his frozen state to one of deep flow. My how he’s grown for the better.

Your Turn

Who can you ask for help in a writing project – or in any life matter – to regain your forward momentum of flow? Take out your journal and list friends and family who would be willing to lend a hand. Then, risk the awkwardness to write on the subject of your choice once again. You need not share the early work with anyone. Simply write to get back into flow.

Here’s to growing your flow,

Marisa

 

 

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Scarecrow’s Wits Lead to Flow

Scarecrow Leads to Flow with Wits

Dorothy’s favorite travel companion, the Scarecrow, is a wonderful observation of how to find flow. From the moment Dorothy helps him down from the post, Scarecrow is using his noggin. He finds remedies and solutions galore. We, too, find answers for all sorts of sticky situations that figuratively keep us hanging when following the Scarecrow’s lead. Scarecrow moves with childlike faith, which is imbued with  his concern for Dorothy’s safety. He is made from straw, but his brainy wits help to get Dorothy to the Wizard. His stability is found in his can-do mindset. He looks for the silver lining in every situation. And he accomplishes this by minding his attitude.

Grwo flow by observing scarecrow's wits
The Scarecrow uses his wits to chaperone Dorothy through her adventures on her way through Oz.

Keeping His Wits About Him

We can get into flow so much faster if we simply take the Scarecrow’s unspoken mantra and make it our own: “Keep your wits about you!”  Yes, situations can get bad in a heartbeat. Yet, solutions are always present when we look around for clues for an answer. In perhaps one of the strongest scenes of depicting flow, the Scarecrow knows that he and his friends are cornered in the Witches castle by her Winkle foot soldiers. Quickly he engages the Tinman’s help by rushing his hatchet into a think rope that holds an enormous light fixture. It crashes down on the Witch and her guards so that the group can continue to escape.

Some of our own gestures may not seem so grand. Yet, they can go a long way to help us escape the negativity in our lives. We may cut ourselves loose from a routine that no longer serves us to work on a journal entry. To move in flow like The Scarecrow, we need to face our fears. We may not have wicked witches, flying monkeys, or a Winkle army chasing us down. But we can move into flow with the intention of helping ourselves first, which leads to helping others.

Your Turn

Take time to think of ways in which the balance of time can be restored in your life for creative work and play. Jot them down in your journal. Then, take the action needed to safeguard your creative self. Note how you feel. Protected? Secure? Relaxed? Make note of the feeling, too.

Here’s to growing YOUR flow,

Marisa

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Flow Grows in Technicolored Flowers

Grow Your Flow in Technicolor

Every writer wants watch as their work grows and flourishes. In watching the Wizard of Oz, one of the first things we notice when Dorothy opens the door from her sepia-colored home into the brightly colored Oz is color. Especially the flowers, thriving and vivacious and glowing in splendor. How can we get our writing to thrive in a vivacious and glowing way? The answer is easier than we might imagine it to be.

Does your writing bloom?

Details Create Flow

To get that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) gem of a look, create in flow inspired by technicolored flowers. MGM took advantage of the new heightened color in the 1939 cinema classic. This explains why everything seems so surprisingly – and thematically – surreal. The flowers are a hint of the dream-like quality of life in the Land of Oz. Notice the detail of the glistening petals, the bright blooms, the silky stalks. They are all lush and made so to hide the Munchkins, who peek behind the blooms at Dorothy and Toto.

Your Turn

Take a stroll around your neighborhood. Notice flowerboxes, landscaping, or flowers being sold on the street. Try to imagine seeing them for the very first time. Consider what it would be like to put on a special pair of glasses that make color “pop” and come to life. Then, take out a journal and write about the experience. Here are a dozen things to consider about the flowers or plants you saw:

  1. What colors were the blooms?
  2. Were they all the same color?
  3. Did they have complementary colors like blue and yellow?
  4. Were the wild or manicured?
  5. Where they in pots or boxes?
  6. Or, perhaps, did they grow long from a rooftop garden?
  7. Are they tall, small, dry, lush?
  8. Are the flowers marked by signs that tell their names?
  9. If you are strolling in a botanical garden, what other trees or bushes are there nearby?
  10. If you are in your backyard, do the flowerbeds take up more room then the grass or are they in even portions?
  11. If you only see trees, were they flowering?
  12. If you see no trees or flowers on your walk, what kind do you remember having in your childhood?

Here’s to growing YOUR flow,

Marisa