Category Archives: Oprah

Taking Action, Saving Money, and Surrendering…

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If you read Tuesday’s post, Do You Want the Millions or Do You Want the Work, you know about my big AHA moment from Oprah’s keynote address. I have another 7 hours worth of moments I wish I could share with you and only an hour before my plane leaves for Austin, Texas… so I’ll do what I can…

Lisa Ling gave the morning keynote address and shared some of the stories she has uncovered while filming her series Our America for OWN. Disturbing stories of child prostitution and sex trafficking happening right here  in North America.  Stories of 13 year olds who refer to their pimps as “daddies” because they do not know what healthy love feels like. Girls who are growing up in a world where no one protects them. Lisa admitted she sometimes struggles to believe in a God who would let these kind of things happen to people. Then she shared with us a poem her husband once sent to her. A poem asking why God isn’t doing anything to save people from the cycle of drug addiction, poverty, and prostitution. The last line – God’s reply to all of the questions – keeps playing on repeat in my mind, “I did do something. I made you.” Lisa finished with a quote that Oprah once shared with her, “Now that you know, you can’t pretend you don’t”. Continue reading →

Do You Want the Millions or Do You Want The Work?

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Are you at at your desk, prepping for an upcoming meeting and sifting through a backlog of emails? Or, are you reading this on your laptop at home, feet up on the coffee table, relieved that the kids have finally gone to sleep?

I’m at a rickety wooden table inside a brick coffee shop. Couches and chairs of every shape and colour litter the room and art students from the local university sketch or talk architecture at the tables beside me. The scent of freshly brewed coffee mingles with the smell of musty, carted down from the attic furniture. I love it here.

My favourite part about writing from the road is having you with me. So, what would you like to hear about? I could re-cap this morning’s historic walking tour of Savannah or describe last night’s dinner at the Olde Pink House restaurant (circa 1771) where I sampled cheese grits and collard greens for the first time. But, if you have read Friday’s post: Living on a Dream…Care to Join Me, you probably want me to get to the point. Continue reading →

My date with Oprah

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OK Universe: someone emailed me to say that I should be more specific. So, I decided to take a mini break from writing and create a fantasy of what could be. Care to join me?

It’s early spring 2011. I’ve recovered from my final surgery and finished the first draft of my book. Along the way, I have continued to blog and feel incredibly lucky that ‘A Fresh Chapter’ has grown to a community of thousands.

I am sipping a latte in my apartment, which (in my ‘I’m a successful writer fantasy’) looks almost identical to Carrie’s Sex in the City abode (the TV series, not the movie). My hair has grown out and somehow become curly so people continually mistake me for Sarah Jessica Parker (circa 2000). I hear the door buzz and as I gracefully answer it, I realize I am wearing an incredibly stylish outfit that I actually pulled together myself. (What…we’re allowed creative license in our fantasies, are we not?)

I open the door and see Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love. She beams me a smile and gives me a warm hug, which is captured by the Oprah camera crew. I invite her in and make her a latte while she tells me all of her secrets about writing a best selling novel. She lets me know that a limousine is waiting to whisk us off to Oprah’s private jet and that we will have the whole flight to Chicago to become best friends.

The next morning Oprah meets me in my dressing room, gives me a double high five, and says that she received my letter almost a year ago, but has been waiting for the perfect time to surprise me. An army of make-up artists and stylists help me get ready and then the crowd roars when Oprah invites me on stage.

We chat as if we’ve known each other for years. Then she surprises me by pulling out a tattered draft of my book and reads aloud the quotes that ‘really touched her’. As if all of this wasn’t enough, she then hooks me up even further by announcing that she has secured an editor and a publisher who are absolutely thrilled to help me take my book to market. Have I thought about who should play me in the movie? I look at my new BFF, Elizabeth, who smiles at me from the audience. On the flight, we had agreed that we could not ask Julia Roberts to shave her luscious locks for the part. But, we both felt Natalie Portman was a great actress and pretty damn gorgeous (why wouldn’t I want a hottie to play me?) She had gone bald for a part before; maybe she could be persuaded to do it again? As for my love interest in the movie, I feel torn between Javier Bardem (he was so sexy in Eat Pray Love), Matt Damon, and Will Smith. Then, I remember that I won’t get to make out with any of them, so I tell Oprah that maybe we should leave the decision up to Natalie.

Oprah gives me a big hug, invites me to get involved in her favorite breast cancer charity, and says she would love to see me again when the book goes to market. She jokes that I had better get busy because she’s retiring in six months.

Take that universe! Is that specific enough for you? I know I need to do the work because this first draft isn’t going to write itself. So, why don’t I concentrate on writing, and you take care of making the rest happen. Thanks!

Now, it’s your turn. What do you want to ask the universe for? Don’t worry, I’m not forcing you to post it online (although you are welcome to). But, maybe you can take five minutes and contemplate the possibilities. It’s Saturday. You’re allowed. You don’t even have to put pen to paper, you could even just have a nice, juicy daydream.

In my old life, I was too pragmatic to be a dreamer.  But, maybe you can benefit from the tough lessons I’ve learned along the way. Life is short. Why not dream big dreams?

Once upon a time…

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So, where do I begin? Maybe with the questions that won’t stop ringing through my mind. What now? What happens after cancer? Who am I now that this nightmare is on its way out?

As I walked the beach in Kitsilano on a cloudy day in June, I contemplated my life’s direction. With chemo and the second of three surgeries behind me, I tried to pep talk myself into a state of optimism. It didn’t work. I continued to feel like a depressed drifter: caught between a past that no longer belonged to me and an unpredictable future.

The best selling ‘self-help’ books made it sound so elementary. I obviously just needed to tell the universe what I wanted. If I could envision it, I could make my future a reality. So, I selected the most powerful woman in the world as my conduit.

If I didn’t know what to do, maybe Oprah could help me. Isn’t she all knowing? Doesn’t she rescue people from the depths of their communal despair? Maybe she could ‘hook me up’ and I could begin my new life?  I giddily composed and sent her an email, then checked my inbox every day for a week.

Dear Oprah,

You don’t know me yet, but I hope that one day you will. I am 31, single, and live in Vancouver, Canada. On October 27, 2009, life as I knew it ended. Perhaps the universe was trying to send me a message to slow down and question whether the stresses of my life were serving me. It worked. My diagnosis of breast cancer brought my career, my quest to meet the perfect man, and my obsession with slimming my hips to an abrupt halt.

The last six months have included a lumpectomy, lymph node dissection, four rounds of chemotherapy, and a bi-lateral mastectomy and those are just the bright, shiny clinical words. I have also contemplated issues surrounding my future fertility, stared at my bald head in the mirror, and experienced what feels like worst PMS of my life as well as the inability to remember even my own name (courtesy of the chemo drugs). The next six months involve procedures to transform my now flat chest back into a perkier version of its old self.

My story may not be unique, but I believe my journey could inspire many. My dream is to write a book. I believe that impacting people in a positive way is what I was put on this earth to do. I believe that the recent events in my life are opening a door to who I was always meant to become.

This isn’t just a book about cancer. This is a book about surviving hardship, but not identifying yourself as the victim…a book about using humour to laugh your way through terror…a book about the search for God or a deeper meaning to life, but not a religious book …a book about finding love in the strangest of places, but learning that someone else’s love can’t save you…a book about realizing that underneath all of the fear and shame we cloak ourselves in, we (even with all of our imperfections) really are enough.

I thought it might be fitting to ask the universe (and you) to help me. I am not an English major and have never written anything except emails and the odd high school essay. I would be grateful if by telling my story I might meet people that can help me navigate this new chapter in my life

Terri

It’s almost 3 months later and I still haven’t heard back. WTF? Yes, I could kid myself and believe the producers are going to show up at my apartment (cue sappy music and me with surprised look on my face when I open the door) and then whisk me away to Chicago. But, let’s be real. Even though I used all of the appropriate Oprah language, my email had probably long since been buried in a harried administrator’s inbox.

So, here I am. Stubbornly ready to take on the challenge. Join me in my journey as I write my first book, navigate through a post cancer world, and do my best to uncover the future with a little class and hopefully a lot of humour.