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Where Does the Present Live? Inside a Grateful Heart

My Tribute to Oprah

By Kathleen ThompsonPublished 4 years ago 8 min read
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Oprah Winfrey in Australia

As a facilitator, for workshops on creativity, I like to take the participants to the place where soul and imagination reside by giving them ideas of how to tap into their most creative selves. I often start the class out with the following exercise;

First, I ask everyone to get quiet.

To inspire means to “draw breath” so I’m asking everyone

take a couple of conscious, deep breaths

and get into the present moment.

I then share with them…”to tap into the creative self, you can’t get stuck in what’s worked before, because you’re not in that place anymore. You are always in a new moment when you are tapping into your creativity.” Having set the stage where the starting place is, I then share a brief history of a woman who has modeled what it means to bring creativity to the present moment - Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah had a national platform through the Oprah Winfrey Show which aired for 25 seasons. She received national and international acclaim for the show, but she didn’t return to the Daytime Emmy’s year after year to pick up her reward for repeating the previous year’s performance. I literally and figuratively grew up watching Oprah Winfrey; I was 25 and she was 30-years old when her show went national. I had the privilege to watch Oprah the person and Oprah the talk show host evolve. Oprah was/is a mirror for myself and many other women – the quintessential model for positive growth and change. When she first began her talk show, she brought women on the show who had difficult life stories to tell, many of whom had suffered emotional or physical abuse. One woman who told her story of abuse became the catalyst for Oprah to reveal her own personal story of being sexually abused as a teenager and other painful childhood memories she had hidden over the years. I believe that moment, of being so raw and vulnerable, was the beginning of Oprah following the “Four-Fold Way.” What is the “Four-Fold Way?” It is a book by Arrien Angeles that holds the following fundamentals to approaching any life situation.

1)Show up

2)Pay attention

3)Tell the truth

4)Remain unattached to the outcome

Do I think Oprah knew that she was following those tenets when she was in the midst of her vulnerability in that one critical moment? No, but her experience taught her how powerful it was. Women all over the world could relate, and were not only supporting her, but cheering her on to continue to speak her truth, and so as she evolved, the show organically evolved to be one of the most empowering platforms for women and men to speak their truth. Oprah was so into the present moment that day. Her breathing into that moment allowed for tears. Tears and truth that came from a greater space than being concerned about ratings. On an unconscious level, at that point in time, I think that Oprah realized that what she couldn’t communicate was running her life. Let me state that one more time because it’s a game changer – “ What you can’t communicate runs your life.” When Oprah released her secret pain on national TV, we all got to witness her shift gears. We watched her heal. It was what grief counselor Stephen Levine might call “a gradual awakening” – to where her show became much more consciously driven. Her audience began to see her deal with her own “weight issues” until she “made the connection,” about how unresolved emotional issues play on physical weight. She brought guests to the shows who were calling forth change, elevated her audiences, the majority of them being women, taking us all to a more empowered place. Over her 25 seasons of doing the Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah went from exploring victimhood to celebrating and affirming personal power. This brief history relays our history as women – our renaissance.

In July of 2010, right before the last season of the Oprah Winfrey Show began, the producers had placed a request on the show’s website- they were asking for viewers to write in and share why they considered themselves to be Oprah’s “Ultimate Viewers.” I went back into my memory bank, and recalled the shows that stood out to me the most; the shows that changed my approach, my perspective, that enhanced my creativity, and nourished my soul. The following is what I wrote and submitted:

“Oprah - I have literally and figuratively grown up watching you - I was 25, and you were about 30 when your show first went national. More importantly, I've evolved as a person because of everything you've been through and all the wonderful topics you've shared with your audiences - I am not the same person I was before watching your shows - I have taken what you've shared to heart and l have lived differently because of you and what you’ve shared over the years. Some examples include - I see the importance of purging and organizing to lighten my load; I will always remember to breathe if I am ever attacked so that I can let out a scream or shout; I will think twice before I criticize anyone because "shame is a spirit-killer"; I am more compassionate because you have shared stories of people who've lost a limb or been in fires; I understand how I have compartmentalized issues in my own life because of your interview with Clinton; I will embrace my shadow side because it will free me up to be more of who I am on a conscious level; and I acknowledge the "Simple Abundance," I experience on a daily basis. Oprah - I AM YOUR AMBASSADOR – each day, I do my best to stay open and vulnerable by directly and honestly addressing whatever comes up for me in my life. I've taped many of your shows and shared them with people whom I thought would benefit hearing about a particular topic, both inside and outside the classroom. You have changed so many lives, - and like me, those whom you have changed now have the opportunity to be the change they wish to see in the world. How many people will take that risk? I'm not sure. But I do, and will - and that is why I consider myself to be one of your Ultimate Viewers. Thank you for all that you have brought to me and for all that you have brought to the world!”

I received a phone call in August from one of the producers of the show. She asked me a few more questions about the letter I wrote. I did not pause for one moment to share more of my enthusiasm for the magnitude and multitude of ways that Oprah had inspired me. Our call ended with the producer saying in a noncommittal way, that if there were seats available in the coming months, “perhaps” I might be receiving an email asking about my availability to be a member of the audience.

“I showed up. Paid attention. Told the truth. I released the outcome.”

In this case, the outcome was grander than I could ever have imagined. About one week after I spoke with that producer, I received the email that would invite me to the first show of the season. It was the show where John Travolta came out on the stage wearing his pilot uniform and Oprah said that she would be taking the audience to AUSTRALIA!!!! Yes, I was sitting with my Mom watching, experiencing Oprah give all 302 of us in the audience the trip of a lifetime!!

A few amazing highlights from my trip…dancing in celebration with members of an Aborigine tribe, a day long adventure with Olivia Newton John at her spa - she greeted our group with an amazing outdoor barbecue including marching band; we did a lovely meditation which included the music of a didgeridoo; we planted trees in honor of our being there; and of course, we were treated with a mini concert where Olivia sang to us. The trip also gifted me with waking up to the sounds of a Kookaburra bird, attending a Bono concert, a close-up visit with a Koala Bear, and enjoying the beauty and landscape of Byron Bay and Sydney. In the last days of the experience, all 302 of us attended the Oprah Winfrey show set at the Sydney Opera House with guests Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, Bon Jovi, and Russel Crowe.

I learned the importance of being grateful from Oprah before that trip was ever conceived as a giveaway for the last season’s shows. The whole experience of reflecting on what Oprah had brought to the world, and to me personally, to writing the letter, to being invited to be in that audience, to experiencing that amazing trip so thoughtfully planned and given to everyone in that audience with so much love and care... the sum of it all …is deeply embedded in me in remembering to live in gratitude.

I also remember hearing Oprah mention on one of her shows that over all the years of helping people launch their careers or giving them a platform to speak their truth, that she had only received less than a handful of thank you notes!? I remember feeling shocked by that statement. As much as author Sarah Ban Breathnach may have seeded the thoughts of giving gratitude in her book “Simple Abundance,” it was Oprah Winfrey who tended the garden…I am rich in gratefulness for all that she has given me personally, and what she brought/continues to bring to the world. The sunlight she has given to issues, the consciousness she has raised in us all knows no bounds.

Oprah reminds us to take a breath, step into the present moment, plant our creative seeds, watch those plants; projects; or children grow while living from a grateful heart.

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About the Creator

Kathleen Thompson

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