Me and O

I love Oprah.  OK, there.  I said it!  I've been watching her off and on for years and liked seeing how her show transitioned to be more meaningful, rather than the trashy talk shows a la Maury and Sally Jessy.  Bleh.  Oprah is the only talk show that Hubs doesn't mind me watching, as he feels the other stuff has absolutely no redeeming value (yes...he knows my penchant for a good ol' episode of Jerry Springer now and then).  Now think what you want about Oprah. Some people love her, some people hate her, some people are meh. I personally looooove Oprah and have gleaned a lot from her shows...maybe it's the stage of life I'm going through but her shows really give me a lot of food for thought.

Because there's all the hype around the end of her show, I started recording the last few weeks so I could watch them at my own leisure.  The other day I watched her finale show, and I was blown away.  It was just her, talking about the things she's learned from her show.  You know how sometimes you hear something, and it really hits home?   It was like in this show, she was talking to me directly.  I'd been struggling with finding my passion for years before discovering my love of running, food and all things healthy.  There's a few potentially life changing things on the horizon where I feel like I'm on the brink of something big, and the "whispers" are pointing me right at it, to take the chance and go for it.  Here's a piece from the transcript of her last show to show you what I mean:

On what our jobs are in life:
What I knew for sure from this experience with you is that we are all called. Everybody has a calling, and your real job in life is to figure out what that is and get about the business of doing it. Every time we have seen a person on this stage who is a success in their life, they spoke of the job, and they spoke of the juice that they receive from doing what they knew they were meant to be doing. We saw it in the volunteers who rocked abandoned babies in Atlanta. We saw it with those lovely pie ladies from Cape Cod making those delicious potpies. … We saw it every time Tina Turner, Celine, Bocelli or Lady Gaga lit up the stage with their passion. Because that is what a calling is. It lights you up and it lets you know that you are exactly where you’re supposed to be, doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing. And that is what I want for all of you and hope that you will take from this show. To live from the heart of yourself. You have to make a living; I understand that. But you also have to know what sparks the light in you so that you, in your own way, can illuminate the world.

On what your life is saying to you:
...and your life is always speaking to you. First in whispers. ... It's subtle, those whispers. And if you don't pay attention to the whispers, it gets louder and louder. It's like getting thumped upside the head, like my grandmother used to do. ... You don't pay attention to that, it's like getting a brick upside your head. You don't pay attention to that, the whole brick wall falls down. That's the pattern I've seen in my life, and it's played out over and over again on this show. A couple weeks ago, we brought back Carolyn Thomas whose face was literally shot off by her boyfriend. You ask Carolyn now: 'Were there whispers? Were there bricks before the disastrous bullet?' What Carolyn would say to you? 'Don't wait for your face to get shot off before you hear your own life speaking to you.  What I've gleaned from this show: Whispers are always messages, and if you don't hear the message, the message turns into a problem. And if you don't handle the problem, the problem turns into a crisis. And if you don't handle the crisis, disaster. Your life is speaking to you. What is it saying?

Powerful stuff.  I know I for one, will miss her show. Thanks for 25 great years, O!