Called a love letter to her fans…Oprah leaves us with highlighting these wonderful lessons. All of these are from the final Oprah Winfrey Show…and I’ve taken these notes…her direct words…to have a reference and to be reminded of what I can be…and of the teacher who gave me the lessons. Thank you Oprah.
Oprah Lessons
- You are not alone.
Finding your Calling…your Passion…
- We all are 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.
- We saw the joy and the juice for (these people) doing what they are meant to be doing…Because that is what a calling is. It lights you up and it lets you know that you are exactly where you are suppose to be and doing exactly what you are suppose to be doing. and that is what i want for all of you.
- Live from the heart of yourself.
- What sparks the light in you so that you in your own way can illuminate the world?
Finding your own platform…your own voice…
- Each one of you has your own platform. Do not let the trappings here fool you. Mine is a stage and a studio. Yours is where ever you are with your own reach…however small, however large that reach is…maybe it’s 20 people, 30 people, 40 people, your family, your friends, your neighbors, your classmates, your classroom, your co-workers…where ever you are, that is your platform, your stage, your circle of influence…that is your talk show and that is where your power lies.
- In every way and every day, you are showing people exactly who you are. You are letting your life speak for you…and when you do that, you will receive in direct proportion to how you give…
- You can help somebody, you can listen, you can forgive, you can heal – you have the power to change somebody’s life. The power is the same. Everybody has a calling. Mine aligned with my profession, my job, but not everybody gets paid for it…but everybody is called. It may be your skill at listening…your talent for nurturing and mothering…Do not get it confused. Your calling – does not have to be something that makes you famous…
- You carry whatever your suppose to be doing and don’t waste any more time. Start embracing the light that is calling you and use your life to serve the world.
Common Connections, Energy and Intention
- When you know better you do better. Nobody but you is responsible for your life. It doesn’t matter what your mama did or what your daddy didn’t do. YOU are responsible for your life.
- YOU are responsible for the energy that you create for yourself and that you bring to others.
- “Please take responsibility for the energy that you bring into this space.” Dr. Jill Taylor
- All life is energy and we are transmitting it at every moment…and the world is responding in kind.
- Newtons 3rd Law of Motion – For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That is the abiding law that I live by, articulated to perfection by Ms. Celie in The Color Purple… “Everything you done to me, already done to you” (from The Color Purple by Alice Walker) This is the golden rule to the 10th power…All the energy that you spend trying to hurt somebody else will turn around and slap you in the face. The same thing is true of love. What I know is is that the energy that I put out everyday with the best of intentions…has come back to me from all of you in full force.
- You are responsible for your life and when you get that everything changes. Don’t wait for anyone else to fix you, to save you or complete you. No one completes you. When you get that you are responsible for your life, you get free.
The Power of Worthiness and Validation
- There is a common thread that runs through all of our pain and suffering – unworthiness. Not feeling worthy enough to own the life that you were created for.
- There is a difference between thinking you deserve to be happy and knowing you are worthy of being happy. …We often block our own blessings because we don’t feel inherently good enough, or smart enough or pretty enough or worthy enough. What this show has taught me…is that your worthy because you are born and because you are here.
- Your being here your being alive makes worthiness your birthright. You alone are enough.
- People all want validation. Every single person that you ever will meet shares that common desire. They want to know – Do you see me? Do you hear me? and Does what I say mean anything to you?
- Understanding that one principle that everyone wants to be heard has allowed me to hold the microphone for you all all these years with the least amount of judgment…it has helped me to stand and to try to do that with an open mind and an open heart. It has worked for this platform and I guarantee you, it will work for yours. Try it with the people in your life. Validate them… I see you, I hear you and what you say matters to me.
God Whispers…Are you listening?
- I know that I’ve never been alone and that you haven’t either. and I know that that presence, that flow – some people call it grace – is working in my life in every single turn and yours too if you let it in. It’s closer than your breath and it is yours for the asking…
- I have felt the presence of God my whole life…even when I didn’t have a name for it I could feel the voice bigger than myself speaking to me and all of us have that same voice.
- Be still…and know it. You can acknowledge it or not. You can work with it or not. You can ignore it or you can know it. Know it. It’s always there, speaking to you and waiting for you to hear it. In every move and every decision, I wait and listen for the guidance that’s greater than my meager mind…the only time I’ve ever made mistakes is when I didn’t listen.
- So what I know is…God is love. And God is life. And your life is always speaking to you. First in whispers. And a whisper in your life feels like, “mmm, That’s odd…that doesn’t make no sense…or mmm…is that right? It’s subtle those whispers and if you don’t pay attention to the whispers, it gets louder and louder and louder. It’s like getting thumped up side the head. If you don’t pay attention to that, it’s like getting a brick up the side of the head. If you don’t pay attention to that, the whole brick wall falls down.
- What are the whispers in your life right now? What’s whispering and will you hear it? Your life is speaking to you…what is it saying?
Validation…make someone feel that they matter.
- You all have been a safe harbor for me for 25 years… and what I hope is that you all will be that safe harbor for someone else…there safe place to fall. Do for them what you have always told me that I have done for you – connect, embrace, liberate, love somebody – just one person. And then, spread that to two…then to ask many as you can… you will see the difference it makes.
- Make some feel that they matter.
Keeping in touch
- Oprah@Oprah.com – my personal email…when you get something, it will be from me directly…I want you to know that what you have to say matters to me….I understand the manifestation of grace and God. I know that there are no coincidences…there are none. Only divine order here…but I am truly amazed that I, who started out in rural Mississippi in 1954 when the visions for a black girl was limited to a maid or a teacher in a segregated school end up here is no coincidence that a lonely little girl who felt not a lot of love even tho my parents and grandparents did the best they could…it is no coincidence that I grew up to feel the genuine kindness, affection, trust and validation from millions of you all over the world. From you, who’s names I will never know, I learned what love is. You and this show have been the great love of my life.
From the final Oprah Winfrey Show, I took these notes to remind myself of the person that I want to be…my best self in my best life. If you are reading them, I hope that they carry the same power and do the same for you and your life.
Love all that Oprah has taught us. Thank-you!!!!!!!
Oprah, you came full circle on Wednesday. You are Preacherwoman offering a bright thoughtful articulate joyful summation of your philosophical viewpoint. You are so filled with soft wisdom and gently touches souls to do their very best.
I have pondered often about OWN and why the ratings are lower than they should be. I think perhaps you may be overlooking the fact that your messages can be delivered in many different ways.
I can so see a weekly “fictional” show entitled “Preacher Woman” based on the lessons of your life. I don’t see it as a chronological series but rather more of a klaidescope that comes into strong focus on the lessons you’ve learned and the messages you want to convey. I see a wise soothing woman’s voice hosting the show – a voice like yours or Maya Angelou or Diane Sawyer as she looks back on her life from the backwoods of Mississippi to the lessons of her father, to her lessons in school, to her forays into the media, to her move to Chicago, to her relationships with men, with mentors, with familty and with herself. The storylines are endless and would be so successful filled with tears, joy, laughter, and most of all very subtle lessons learned. Wouldn’t that be your fictional autobiography? that would live on and on. It could be a huge moment.
Also, I see your producing and developing a show called “Chicago” – one that centers on an extremely successful wealthy family – yes, a running soap opera – but one that has a moral each episode. Chicago would be dynamite. – all the richness of the great city – all the politics, the drama, the vitality, and the influence.There is a strong need for such a program. The family might be a banking one – so needed – because Americans really need to learn how the financial system really works without the terribly boring explanations offered by business news channels. Extraordinary life styles with extraordinary problems – personal, emotional, financially, and morally.
Well, I hope you do read this and have an “AHA” moment, Preacherwoman!
I have watched you for years. I have watched you help so many, including myself. I have written, emailed many, many times. I thank you for the many ways you have helped me. I wrote to you hoping to get you to help me save my son, because I did see you help so many people, but I never got a response, I just thought it was because I wa from a no where small town. I reached out to so many for help, and received none, so my son was taken away for a long time because of prejudice and injustus ( excuse my spelling upset). I still fight for him, and still I reach out to many with no answers. Kansas has a cruel Good Ol Boy system, that does not benefit african american males, or blacks in general, so reaching out for help here, is useless. I appreciate you, and respect you so very much, I just knew you were the person to help us. Although realistically maybe you could not have, but I just wanted you to try. I know you will continue to help others no matter what you go on to do. Thank and God Bless you
Oprah I have been watching your behind the scenes and aI watched your final show, and I want to tell you that you really inspired me because the last week has just been a really odd week for me.. Just to tell you first off 2 years ago I lost my husband of 30 years of marriage..I became a widow at 47 years old.. For the past week I have felt really lost not knowing who I really am,and am I lovable still, I feel I don’t have a purpose in this life any more and what is my title now? I know I am still Mom, but no longer the title of Wife,Lover. My husband and I were truly soul mates and I find myself missing him truly….So when I watched your final show you hit so many points for me and I want to thank you…You helped me start getting on track a little bit made my mind think. Thank you and you will be missed I look forward to more stuff from you. Thanks again Terri
Oprah,
A rose blooms as a bud and unfolds slowly until its full glory is revealed. You are a beautiful wonderful rose giving your blossoms to the world now, but your full glory has not been revealed. God has more in store for you and thru you we will have enriched lives. I have always been an avid fan and follower of advice you have given as appropriate to my life. Thank you very much. I am a rose in bloom and I am still unfolding too. I think I am living my best life but maybe the best is yet to come. I am prayerful for you and for myself and my fervent prayer is for more people to pay heed to your petals which you are strewing all over the world. Continue. Please. And thanks again.
A Rose in Chicago
i love you oprah so much i am amal in morocco
Thank you for sharing this 🙂 Gonna miss Oprah show however, her personal email to all of us is just as good so far 😉
ALL I CAN SAY IS GOD HAS USED YOU IN MY LIFE AND MILLIONS OF OTHERS TOO. YOU ARE TRUELY A GOD SEND. I LOVE YOU AND THE WORK YOU DO,FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART. THE ONE THING IN MY LIFE THAT I REALLY WANTED TO DO WAS TO MEET YOU, AND TO TELL YOU WHAT AN IMPACK YOU HAVE HAD ON MY LIFE I WOULD HAVE GIVEN ANTHING TO HAVE MET YOU AND TELL YOU WHAT YOU MEAN TO ME, BUT I AM JUST A LOW MIDDLE CLASS LADY WITH NOT A LOT OF WORDLY THINGS , BUT GOD HAS BLESSED ME WITH A FANTASTIC LOVING FAMILY. TO YOU I WISH YOU THE BEST IN WHATEVER YOU DO IN THE FUTURE. GOD BLESS YOU DEARLY.AS HE HAS BLESSED ME . THANK YOU DEE
iove you oprah so sooooo much ihave been waching your show for 12 year ilearned from you wanderfull lessons inspite of you are faraway ,from different community,diffrent religion and language.you are my best friend thank you so much for helping me and other million your show is finish but your light in my heart will gide me untill my heart stop no one know imay winn lottery or green card and see you personaly every thing possible thank you again love you for ever
I learned so much from the lessons you shared. I’ve learned from you all 25 years I have been watching the show. I do remember the first time your words made a difference in my life. I remember the first time you admited to the abuse and I later gained the strength to share with my mother.
As you described the energy and how it manifests within our lives I had an aha moment. I have been blessed to work with terminally ill patients and manage to develop connections spiritually and emotionaly. They also teach me the value of life. I know that I am exactly where I should be and I developed a business that donates annually to continue providing the funds needed to care for our patients. I work for Hospice Simcoe which provides free care for patients and their families. I want to make a difference in one’s life.
Thank you for all the strength, guidance, love, acceptance, and freedom the be who I was ment to be and due. Tania Smith
The challenge of business is far greater now than it has ever been. I do at times consider were i will be in the future, unsure of my life but knowing I am loved is very comforting. My responsibilities are to my family, friends and my team members.
When a read text such that you have just written Oprah, it is an inspiration and words ring true, to how each and everyone of are special.
Many thanks
Thank you for this. I particularly liked the section on finding your own platform – it reminded me that I don’t have to have as big an influence as Oprah in order to serve the world- I look forward to many more sharings from Oprah – she is a great mentor for me.
I wrote some of Oprah’s words from this love letter on a birthday card that I sent someone. I believe that these words are a true vision and an inspiration for all who read them.For me, the words about your circle of influence,finding your own calling, and the power to effect others was particularly meaningful
What was the quote from the show today I meant to write it don & I forgot already it went something like this – do not hold yourself hostage for things that you’ve done . . .
I think it was something like this: You don’t have to hold yourself hostage for who you used to be or anything you ever used to do. Everyone has made mistakes. Don’t hold yourself hostage for who you’ve been or what you’ve done.