I’m just about home and there are so many “a-ha’s” and take-aways and reflections I want to share from this weekend that will be better served in bits and pieces, I believe, throughout this week.
Spreading out reflections will also be a good opportunity for me to sift through the sessions /materials (most of which I audio-recorded with my iPhone so I can re-listen in the speakers’ voices)…because helpful information is only as helpful as it is able to really sink in and become personalized and walked out where there are things to be walked out…
I wanted to quickly share though how impactful this weekend was for me, to have the privilege of sitting in Oprah’s audience, participating in this new pet project of hers, which although it in many ways resembles so many of the Christian conferences I’ve attended since I became born-again Christian at 16….it is undeniably set apart because, well… This was Oprah taking time out of her life to attempt to bring and share her very own testimonies and breakthrough to people around the nation, not cuz she in any way “needs” to make yet another contribution to society or add anything else to her résumé to make it significant…
This was just one more way for her to share what she feels made/called to share with people in the world in a more focused/deliberate way.
I for one, definitely appreciate that she came — with a truly admirable group of her hand picked “trailblazers”– to Seattle so that attending was accessible for me 🙂
I am grateful to my husband for letting this be my “birthday gift” — I kept feeling throughout that even though I wasn’t certain if it was the best use of my $ and time even up to its start, that I was truly privileged to have it — like when I was younger and I would choose a great self-help/personal growth type of book or magazine, or my beloved easel (favorite gift to myself in university) over a Gucci bag or diamond earrings any day….
This was the perfect gift for me in this time and season, and I’m grateful that my husband made it possible, that my friends so generously housed and fed (and drove on Saturday) me… And that when I was unsure about whether to go and then which seats to pick, I had good friends who could help me process and make the decisions I needed to make to get there.
Anyhow I’m grateful and refreshed in my spirit — and eager to see what is to come and unfold in this next season of my life, even as I take this next week to review what was shared and said and continue to receive what each speaker “had” — knowingly and unknowingly –to impart to me/us.