"Dorothy! Dorothy! Where are you?" It was the Lion. "We must be on our way!" he said.
"I'm ready," replied Dorothy. "I've just had the most delightful experience with a Wogglebug."
"Oh, yes," said the Lion. "Aren't they just the most adorable creatures?"
"Yes indeed," said Dorothy. "I wish I could take one home with me to Kansas."
"I wonder what your Aunt Em would think," said the Lion. "To see a fuzzy yellow animal that talks."
Dorothy laughed. "That would be quite a sight. I'd love to see Aunt Em's face if that happened."
"What if you brought us all home?" said the Lion. "She would really be surprised then!"
Dorothy smiled at the thought of it. She could just see the expression on Uncle Henry's face as she introduced her friends to him. And if she took them all to school, how exciting that would be. Her school friends would really be surprised to see a scarecrow, a tin man and a lion walking around and talking. As it was, she knew no one would believe her when she did return. She knew that she really would not be able to tell anyone about her adventures. They just would say she had been dreaming like the last time.
"Well, let's be on our way," repeated the Lion. "Do you see that red haze, Dorothy?"
"Yes," said Dorothy. "I do. I see some of the other colors, too. It looks like a big rainbow on the ground." As they walked toward Colorland, Dorothy began to think about her adventures so far. She was having a really exhilarating time. She felt somehow she was undergoing a learning experience, and felt good about it. She realized, thinking back on her life, that it was all a learning experience. That she was learning and growing and expanding in awareness and understanding. She sensed that somehow there was a guiding force behind her life, gently nudging her into different directions and into different experiences. She felt that it was important to somehow try to get in tune with this force and not to get upset when things did not go exactly her way, but to accept gracefully the bad with the good and to try to learn from each experience. She sensed that if she did this, and especially if she asked for guidance each day, that perhaps some of the bad experiences that she was yet to go through in her life might not be as harsh as they otherwise would have been. She realized that her own attitude during each experience was the key to the whole thing. If she allowed herself to become agitated and upset over every little thing that happened, or over the way other people behaved or talked, her life would be one of constant turmoil. But if she maintained a positive, optimistic attitude and did not allow the negativity of others to affect her, and if she tried to understand the motivation behind others' actions and words and tried to help them where she could, her own life would be happier and more meaningful. She knew that a great deal of what others said or did was through lack of understanding. She vaguely remembered a saying somewhere: "Forgive them, for they know not what they do."