Ruby Slippers

I had a little crisis of faith recently. I went to my spirit guides for help. I was meditating and found myself in a warehouse. It was a big, dark empty room with smaller rooms and hallways along the perimeter. I was looking for the things I seemed to have lost - Peace, Joy, Trust, Faith. I started looking for them in the warehouse.

Then I heard, “Sit down and be still.”

Since I’ve learned it’s always a very good idea to listen to these messages, I sat down in the middle of the empty warehouse and closed my eyes.

And I knew then that the search was needless. The things I thought I had lost were not “out there” - they are inside me. And when I sit down and get still, they make themselves known to me. 

I started wondering about my long and sometimes difficult spiritual journey. Did it have to be as difficult as it has been? Have I just been running in circles? Has the journey even been necessary?

Maybe I could have just sat down and been still 30 years ago and gotten my answers. Maybe the struggle and effort have been superfluous. 

Or maybe I needed to take the journey to realize I didn’t need the journey.

Like Dorothy’s journey to Oz, maybe there is a reason for the journey, but not the reason I think. 

The ruby slippers could have taken Dorothy home at any time. When Glinda, the good witch, tells her this, the Scarecrow asks why Glinda didn’t tell Dorothy at the beginning. Glinda says Dorothy would not have believed her. It’s only after her long journey that Dorothy realizes what she was searching for was in her own backyard all along.

Like Dorothy, maybe I could have gotten here sooner. I know now that I had the power all along.  That everything I’ve been searching for is in my own backyard. But I needed (chose?) to take the long way. And not for nothing - I’ve learned a lot (and continue to learn) along the way.

I may have been able to click my ruby slippers together and returned “home” without the journey. But I would have missed so much. I know I complain that my journey has been difficult. What I don’t say often enough is that it’s also been incredible and wonderful and breath-taking. 

In missing the pain, I would have also missed the joy.

I may not have needed the journey, but it’s been an amazing adventure!