Ruby Slippers

In this world of smart devices, we are used to clicking to make things happen. One of my favourite films of all-time is The Wizard of Oz. If you haven’t seen this film, you should. The first few times I watched the film was on a black & white TV, okay, so I’m truly giving away how ancient I am. But anyway, all we had in my early life was a black and white TV, so a lot of the magic of the movie was lost to me during those early viewings. I will never forget the first time I saw the film in its full glory. I always thought the full film was in black and white, so when Dorothy opened the door to Oz and all that glorious technicolor hit me, I couldn’t believe it! I was like, ‘when did this film get colourised,’ which was a thing back in the day. That was the day the slippers truly became Ruby. I didn’t have to imagine it. The power of those Ruby slippers brings with it a wonderful life lesson. So without giving away any spoilers, Dorothy and her dog Toto get caught in a storm, and are thrown over the rainbow and find themselves lost in Oz. There’s an unfortunate accident involving a wicked witch wearing fabulous Ruby slippers, and said slippers were given to Dorothy by a good witch who instructs her to follow the yellow brick road to see the Wizard in the Emerald City. Glinda, the good witch, is sure that the Wizard can help Dorothy get back home to Kansas. So Dorothy and Toto set off to see the wizard, she meets three lovely companions along the way who are also in need of the wizard’s help, all while being hunted by the dead witches sister, who is also a wicked witch and she wants those Ruby slippers. They get to the Emerald City and face the great and powerful Wizard, who turns out to just be an ordinary man. Though he’s ordinary, he’s quite savvy and is able to help Dorothy’s three companions, but there was nothing in his bag of tricks for Dorothy. Enter, Glinda the good witch who says this to Dorothy: ‘You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas.’ Say what?? One of Dorothy’s companion on this seemingly unnecessary journey asks why Glinda didn’t tell her before, and Glinda says, ‘Because she wouldn’t have believed me, she had to learn it for herself!’ Bam, there's the life lesson! Dorothy already had everything she needed to get back home. She actually didn’t need to look any further than her feet and those gorgeous Ruby slippers. The surviving wicked witch was desperate to get those slippers because they were magic. So now that Dorothy understood the power she had all along, she took action … she clicked her heels, repeated her mantra, ‘there’s no place like home,’ and poof, her dream because her reality. She did it. She was home. It boiled down to what Dorothy believed, and that got her to her goal. Had she not taken the journey to Oz, she would have never realized her full potential. The same is true for you. The power lies within all of us to shape our own destiny. We possess all the tools we need. The journey to our destiny serves to reveal who we are and what we’re capable of through the lessons we learn along the way. So take that journey within. See yourself as the powerful force that you are. Then take action … get to clickin’!