“You’ve always had the power all along, my dear. You just had to learn it for yourself.”
I’ve spent a large part of my life thanking other people for impacting me in indescribable ways and for pushing me to be who I am today. I’m usually met with the response of, “I didn’t do anything. You had it in you all along.” One friend would always simply say, “Ruby Slippers.”
I became forever curious in the symbolism of the Ruby Slippers--Glinda’s reminder to Dorothy that we only need to look inside ourselves to find what we need. Even with that though, I think there is something to be said about the help from others in the discovery of our own shoes.
I can confidently state that I would have spent my life wearing unassuming tennis shoes and flip flops had people not pushed the slippers in front of me and cajoled me into trying them on. I didn’t believe I could fit into the Ruby Slippers or was even worthy of traipsing around in shoes filled with such beauty and wonder. In my mind, I didn’t have what the others had. I was never able to tap into or claim what people professed to so clearly see in me; however, I was blessed to have family and friends in my life who relentlessly told me I was born to wear the shoes. It took a couple of adventures in my Ruby Slippers for me to own not only who I was but who I could be. I have yet to take them off since. The fact still remains though that it took other people placing the shoes right in front of me and forcing me to try them on in order for me to see that “I had it within me all along.”
My fear then falls on all the other sweet souls who either can’t find their Ruby Slippers or don’t believe they are worthy of them. Everyone has something uniquely special to offer up to the world, but some truly don’t see that within themselves. If we simply claim it’s everyone’s responsibility to find their own slippers, I am afraid the world would be missing out on an abundance of light and innovation; therefore, I’d like to call on us all to be those pesky shoe salespeople.
Be someone who not only sees greatness in others but repeatedly tells those people you do. Be someone who keeps placing the Ruby Slippers in front of the people who may need help and a little nudge claiming their power. Be someone who holds the hand of those who are trying the slippers on for the first time because they will undoubtedly wobble and fall, and it’s our job to let them know that’s part of the process. Be someone who sticks around to cheer on those who have bravely learned to claim their light and, most importantly, let it shine. Be someone who realizes that part of the responsibility of finding and wearing our own Ruby Slippers is to ensure that others feel the same freedom and joy.
So, yes, we may have had the power within us all along, but I’d bet that there has been at least one person in our lives who saw something deep within us that we just could not see. All of us are blessed with Ruby Slippers in our closet, and if we cannot find them, I pray another person is quick to pull them out so we can all spend our days walking around shining our light and sharing our passions with each other.
Ruby shoes go quite nicely with that Yellow Brick Road.