All that glitters ...

Hans Christian Anderson's story of 'The Red Shoes' has been retold and turned into ballets and films.  Why so popular?  Like all timeless tales, we recognize some of ourselves in the vain little girl who trades her home-made shoes for fancy.  In a Magyar-Germanic version recounted in Women Who Run With the Wolves, a motherless girl is rescued by a souless old woman who tries to put her in a gilded cage.  Things do not turn out well.  She would have been better off traversing through the woods wearing her perfectly functional hand-fashioned shoes.

Most entrepreneurial women find themselves longing to be rescued at some point.  Even Gloria Steinem stayed too long with a wrong guy because he offered a more superficial life.  A better approach can be to take a rest not too far from our path; to resume our passionate, innovative lives after catching our breaths. 

When Joseph Campbell bellowed "follow your bliss", he did not say it would be easy.  Actually, it makes you the heroine of your own story.  When you are considering being rescued by a more secure job, or a relationship that  promises to take responsibilites off your shoulder, give yourself permission to mull things over in a protected space.  As Dr. E's Aunt Tereza warned:  "Look at your shoes and be thankful they are plain ... for one has to live very carefully if one's shoes are too red."