My Evening With Oprah

You know, just an intimate gathering of, I don't know, 10,000?

That's a guess obviously but you get the point.

The seats were packed with Edmontonians but we weren't alone.

There were people that came from out of town, out of province and even out of country.

All to catch a bit of the magic that is Oprah Winfrey.

I didn't even consider buying tickets.

As you know, we are not in the position to be spending on such luxuries.

Then out of the blue {though Oprah says there's no such thing} my Mom calls me up, informs me that she's going and invites me along!

{Thanks Mom, extra thanks since I just now noticed the ticket price.}

I wore tights you guys, a skirt and tights, any excuse to get dressed up you know.

Wonderful Husband came home early to give us lots of time to get settled.

We took a back route and made it to Rexall Place in record time, leaving an hour to get settled.

I thought at first that this would land us in a deserted arena.

Not the case.
At all.

The place was buzzing.

Bottlenecks were forming at the doors.

Line ups were forming at the ladies restrooms, prompting some of the mens to be temporarily converted.

Either everyone was really excited to see Oprah or the punctuality was due to the abundance of X chromosomes {sorry guys, it's a little true though right?}.

Maybe a little of both.

I mean, this was an important night.

As she herself remarked, Oprah has raised many of us.

I have memories at ten years old of my Mom quickly making an instant coffee, grabbing some social teas and settling in for Oprah after work.

I can't count how many times she or I have said, "On Oprah..." or "Oprah says...".

Too many "aha" moments to count.

Now, I promised a little inspiration.

This was mine, I do not expect it to resonate with everyone.

The beauty of this event though, was that there were so many great moments that it would be near impossible to walk away without your own "aha{s}".

~Your life is defined not by how successful you are but by how significant you are.~

This is not a direct quote since I couldn't get it in my iphone fast enough and continue to listen to the wisdom.

I just love the idea that we could measure the "success" of our company not by how many dollars we make but by how we put those dollars and our time back into service in our community.

This very idea came up in a recent planning meeting.

We all had this same sentiment but you can count on Oprah to put it so eloquently.