All things Oprah. I have watched her consistentIy for 25 years. Cried with her, laughed with her, evolved with her. And yes I had awful 80's hair too!
I follow her on Facebook now, and have recorded her last season. I watch them on Mondays, my day off.
Today, I am going to share a bitter moment I had because of the woman I so admire. I damn near came to tears when I found out on a Sunday night newscast that the Oprah Show was coming to the State Fair of Texas. Only one big problem to keep me from being there. I had a delivery to make that same day, same time and on the complete other side of town. Almost Ft. Worth.
SuddenIy, I was in the midst of a crisis. Not because I could not decide what to do, ditch the delivery or not ditch the delivery, rather because I was so mad at this predicament I was in.
I was mad at being my own boss! Here I was on my day off, making a delivery that was not even worth the price of gas and the time to help someone out.
If it had not been for this very sweet and loyal customer whose name was Hope, I would have been even angrier. She had helped me out when I needed it. And this was a fundraiser. Plus, Hope was in the Texas Armed Guard and had to leave the order details with someone while she was down on the coast helping with evacs. No way could I ditch this woman!
To deal with the anger, I did what I typically do, block it out. All day long, however I simmered with anger, all day long I was on the verge of tears. Here was my idol, my TV BFF in my home town taping her show and I had to miss out!
I tried to retail therapy, tried exercise. Still no relief. I decided to let it go as best I could. Late that night while taking out the trash, I could hold it in no longer. I sat heavily on the bumper of my truck and began to cry. My shoulders shook as I cursed my bad luck and my awful timing, which still plagues me to this day.
All of sudden , my son was there. "Mom what's wrong?" I heard the worry in his voice, the concern. How could I tell him?
I struggled to tell him that missing the Oprah show, a once in a lfetime opportunity was like watching my life pass me by. That this moment would never happen again. I suddenly realized why I was so upset. Missing that opporunity had reopened the wound. My eternal wound of what coulda, shoulda or woulda been had I not married so young and had my children so young. Here was my son, my grown up handsome musician son and he was there wondering why his mom was outside crying after 10:30 at night.
My truth above all policy kicked in and I struggled to tell him gently what was bothering me. I saw the confusion in his face, saw him try to make sense of what I was jabbering about. I was glad that I was so upset that I could not talk coherently because I could have hurt his feelings.
"Mom, it's just a TV show, it's not that important, go in and go to bed, Mom."
He was right in a far more fundamental and wise way than I could see at that moment, the fact that I missed that show taping was really not that important.
But he was wrong about it just being a TV show.
Oprah, we are all gonna miss ya, girl. Thanks for helping shape this Texas woman, mother, wife, artist, writer, small business owner and community activist. Thanks for entertaining me, guiding me, informing me but most of all, I thank you for giving me permission to be what ever the hell I wanted to be. And you did that by example.
Vaya con Dios......We love you.
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