Attract The Life You Want

The Doors of Possibility

by Linda on November 19, 2013

I’ve always loved that scene in The Wizard of Oz movie, when Dorothy—who up until that point has been filmed in black and white (or more accurately, sepia)—opens a door and steps into a wonderful world of brilliant color.  Suddenly, with the opening of that door, Dorothy (and the audience) is exposed to a new world of possibilities. It’s pure magic…or is it?
For the first 12 years of my young life, I can only remember seeing colors within the grey spectrum.  You see, I grew up in post war England amid endless chain-smoking chimney-stacks, ugly factories, slate-roofed houses, and skies full of rain clouds.  But then one day, my parents took me on a car ferry ride across the sea to Ireland.  When the huge (grey) metal doors of the ferry opened up to let us out, the color-lenses of young eyes clicked into place.  The site of green fields and blue skies flooded my vision—I honestly believed I was seeing color for the first time.  And I was.
The journey back home to my grey life in England was inevitable, but somehow or other, I knew that my grey life wouldn’t be long for this world. Something in me had shifted.  I had experienced a new dimension, a richness of color, and there was no going back to the mediocrity and sameness of grey.
Such opportunities to see a different reality, to glimpse a new possibility and way of being for my life, have teased me my whole life. I use the word tease because I believe that the universe was (and still is) showing me and coaxing me to consider those possibilities.  Just when you think there’s only grey, along comes this other preference, this other choice, and it changes you forever.  But, only if you let it.
A more recent example is when I found myself living with a man who was all-wrong for me.  In the midst of my miserableness, I would see other couples actually enjoying each other’s company—could it be possible that there’s actually a man out there who could not only like me, but adore me?  What a concept.   And so I would flirt with the dream…the possibility that I could experience a relationship in an entirely new way.
Peering through the door for a quick look is one thing, but stepping through the door to the other side requires a recognition of the truth—the truth to admit that where you are now is just a pale glimmer of the full spectrum of who you really are and the life you could be living.  It also demands of you a fairly thick slice of courage—the courage to slam the old door closed, and walk through the new door. 
Unlike Dorothy’s door, our earthly doors don’t magically open up for us—they require our input.  And it doesn’t happen overnight.  It took me five long, painful years to slam my old relationship door shut. But that’s just me—I have a particularly high threshold for suffering.  You can begin your journey by leaving the door ajar and permitting yourself to take a peek through it whenever life feels too grey.
Somehow or other, I’ve always known that the version of myself that I dream about, and the version of the life I crave, really do exist somewhere out there in the future. It’s all waiting for me behind that closed door, waiting for me to catch up with it….to step into it. 
The next time you allow yourself to get a glimpse of that glorious, colorful version of yourself in a new life, become like Dorothy.  Look around with wonder, marvel at what you’re desiring, feel how good it feels, give it a soundtrack. Feel the pull it has on you.  And let yourself hang out there for as long as it takes for you to hear birds chirping and symphonies playing.  It just may be the universe giving you a sneak peak at your coming attractions.  But don’t be surprised or scared if after all this dreaming, you find yourself one day unable to go back to your old life.  This is what’s meant to happen.  This is the shift moment…the undeniable no-going back moment.  You walking through the door is the magic. That’s when you’ll hear yourself say:  I’m not in Kansas anymore….that is, unless you want to be.