Life is like The Yellow Brick Road. We venture down this winding path not knowing where it leads but seeking answers to all the important questions. Along the way, we meet people. Some build us up, love us, teach us, and guide us. Others tear us down, intimidate us and try to throw us off our path. We experience adventures that are thrilling and joyous, and we experience heartbreak that leave our souls empty and depleted. All of these things...the people we meet, the experiences we encounter, the lessons we learn, they all shape who we are and what we believe. BUT, we have a choice. We choose HOW we let these people and experiences shape us. We can’t control who we meet or what life throws at us, but we CAN CHOOSE how we respond.
Finding your voice, and your power is a hard thing to do. Some of us go through life knowing exactly who we are and what we want, and finding our true self comes naturally. For others, who are more like me, finding ourselves takes time. In my life, it has taken a long, winding, twisting, bumpy road to get where I am today. The road has been beautiful, but there have been a few potholes along the way. Ones that left me feeling lost and powerless. But God used these potholes to help me grow. Through them he showed me my true strength and my true self.
It took love and friendship from some amazing people I met along my yellow brick road to help me and encourage me. It also took a lot of on my knees type of prayers to the man upstairs. Through these people and these experiences, I was able to rise above the fear, live through the uncertainty and overcome my failures. I am still a work in progress, but I am a stronger, wiser version of myself these days. I will never stop trying to better myself or learn more about who exactly I am and what I want from this beautiful life, but my vision is getting clearer. Why? Because I know now that I hold the power to change how I live my life. I can't control what happens around me, but I can control how I rise above it and how I use it to shape me.
There is a little bit of Dorothy in all of us. We are all searching and struggling to find our way in this world. But unlike Dorothy, some of us let the fear of the unknown, or the people we meet, or the experiences we go through knock us off our path. You have to be willing to dig deep, find your grit, and push through the uncomfortable. Then once you do, NEVER forget. Never forget the struggles that brought you through. Never forget the road you took to find yourself. I look back on mine quite often as a reminder of how far I've come. When I start to doubt myself (because no matter how strong we are, we still have doubts), I remind myself of the road I traveled, how I found my way, and how I found the strength to stand up over and over again. It may have taken a village of people to encourage and support me, but the real change happened when I found the power within myself to believe in me. It took some time, but I finally figured it out.
Simply put, "You've always had the power my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself."