This morning the girls and I did centering prayer. I told the girls to close thier eyes and imagine the God who Created us, the Son, and the Holy Spirit sitting around the table, with a space for each of us. (Based on Rublev’s icon of the Trinity.) Then we took a deep breath in and a deep breath out and asked them to show us what they were doing today. Eden said:

“I see a yellow path with green grass all around it and red flowers. … I really did see it, Mommy!”

I don’t know what she’s made of that today. But it was an encouragement to me. Dorothy and her travel companions have made a pretty big impact on me. I often think of the yellow brick road winding through the kingdom and I try, with a merry band of friends, to follow it. So, in honor of Eden’s post, I give you this quote. It’s from “Dorothy on Leadership” by the godfather himself, Brian McClaren. The orginal is in RevMagazine Nov/Dec 200o, but being as I’m not a subscriber I can’t link you to it. Sitll, may this little bit guide you along your yellow brick road.

At first glance, Dorothy is all wrong as a model of leadership. She is the wrong gender (female) and the wrong age (young). Rather than being a person with all the answers, who knows what’s up and where to go and what’s what, she is herself lost, a seeker, often bewildered, and vulnerable. These characteristics would disqualify her from modern leadership. But they serve as her best credentials for postmodern leadership.…When you think of Dorothy, the picture is so different. Basically, instead of sitting pretty in a control booth, she’s stuck in a predicament—still a little dizzy from the tornado, lost, far from home, needing to find the way. As she sets out on her journey, she finds other needy people (actually not people exactly, but you get the point), one in need of courage, another in need of intelligence, another in need of a heart. She believes that their varying needs can be fulfilled on a common quest, and her earnestness, her compassion, her determination, and her youthful spunk galvanize them into a foursome (five, with Toto) singing down the yellow brick road together. Dorothy doesn’t have the knowledge to help them avoid all problems and dangers; she doesn’t protect them from all threats and temptations. But she doesn’t give up, and her passion holds strong, and in the end, they all get what they need.