Since this is the last season of the Oprah Winfrey show, and since it's her birthday, I wanted to pay tribute to her. She is a woman who has had more influence on me than any earthly person other than my mother and Harriett Tubman, my childhood hero.
Oprah's performance as Sethe, in the movie adaptation of Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Beloved, has been an anchor in my life. I've kept the picture of her with Beloved next to my computer for eleven years, or on my vision board. The picture of it in my Vermont office in 2000 is below. The strength she portrays in that picture has inspired me in unspeakable ways to hold on when times have been tough. God bless you, Oprah.
If you are looking to someone or something for strength, look to God and yourself first, then to someone who inspires you, as Oprah has inspired me. God bless you to grow into the person you are meant to become. You are loved. You are seen. You matter.
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