Oprah Winfrey, one of my greatest teachers in the world,
turned 60 yesterday. What a milestone for her. For me. For us to have someone
like her inhabit the same space as we do. Someone who is the epitome of, I can
be anything I want as long as I believe, go out there and work twice as hard
and put myself out there to be lauded or laughed out by the masses. Regardless
of where I come from or look like. And I do it well.
A woman with a funny name who grew up in the time when women
with dark skin were not considered to be beautiful. When we were considered to
be too ethnic to break down the barriers created by our own race as well as
others who had an image of what beautiful was. A woman who came from a family
that had nothing and had an outhouse to a woman, as she now says, is flying around the world in her own airplane
and has not one indoor bathroom but many. Not one house but many.
I believe she is successful because she felt she had nothing
to lose – the world was already against her anyway as she did not meet any of
the expectations that anyone had of the beautiful or the privileged. She
achieved because she was the underdog and used that position as a position of
strength because she recognized from early on the only person that could define
or limit her is none other than herself. She decided she was going to be
somebody who lived a life of service. And she did just that and continues to do
just that.
Oprah gives so much of herself to us that she is rewarded in
kind by the Universe. For putting herself out there as a woman not ashamed of
from whence she has come to be able to embrace her past as part of why she is
so resilient. Why she is a champion of life.
Any woman or person, for that matter, who can sit by an oak
tree in the most underprivileged way and see its beauty, its true beauty and resilience,
can move mountains by the power of her being. Her presence. Any person who can
look herself in the mirror and say sure people are trying to define me, tell me
what I can and cannot be, but it is entirely up to me to make my way, deserves
every success she gets. Because she is the true embodiment of the God self –
the one who knows her own strength and power.
I held Oprah’s hand and looked in her eyes once on a cold
spring day in NYC as we prepared to walk for the O magazine and was in awe so
much I did not know what to do. But what I realized more than anything from her
that day is that she is a woman just like me – a woman with a story to tell, a
life to live, gratitude to give and service to offer. A woman who is
vulnerable, imperfect and scared sometimes but does not use those excuses as a
means to keep her confined and defined by the perception of others. A woman who
has learned to step in our own power and claim it for what it is giving her the
ability to grow and mature from the eyes of wisdom and empathy.
I am eternally grateful to be in the time of Ms. Oprah
Winfrey because she alone has changed the complexion of success, perseverance,
and grace by never forgetting her roots and more importantly never forgetting
to express gratitude for who she is, where she is and what she is still here to
do.
Sixty years only nine years more than the time I have walked
this Earth – boy do I have a lot of catching up to do – but what better role
model than Ms. Oprah to emulate and pursue – what an absolute dream.
Happy belated 60th Birthday to a woman, Ms. Oprah
Winfrey, who knows her own strength and refuses to shrink under it and goes for
it every single day in a giving and global way. Thank you for all the doors you
have opened for me and my daughter just by being you and only you. Namaste.
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