O Magazine

My mom gave me a subscription to O Magazine as a Christmas present last year. As the months went by and the hefty-sized glossy would land -- clunk! -- in my mailbox, I admit to being less than thrilled. Smiling Oprah and all her peppy headlines just didn't do it for me. I don't think I even read the first seven issues I received and, now as I think about it, I have no idea where those ended up. But then, one night as I was giving the kids a bath, I sat next to the tub and cracked open the July issue. As I read, I had what Oprah calls an "Aha!" moment. I sat there getting splashed by the tsunami that is bathtime, but didn't feel a drop as I read the article about Eckhart Tolle. It was a Q and A interview between Oprah and ET. As soon as he described this one night where, depressed out of his mind and considering suicide, he thought, "when I am saying to myself, 'I am so depressed', who am I talking to? Who is the 'I' and who is the 'self'?"

It's almost like some kind of riddle out of Alice in Wonderland, but with that question I was hooked. Not so much on being a ET follower -- though I do plan on reading his book. I was hooked on O magazine because I suddenly realized that beneath the slickness and air brushing, this magazine is filled with so much that is just soooo relevant to my life. Thank you Mom!

I am writing this because I have browsed a few blogs where one blogger tries to live out all of Oprah's advice in one year and another where the blogger tries to systematically follow all the advice in O magazine. I'll post the links later as I am forgetting their urls at the moment. I guess I have been immune all these years to the mighty O, but as I read Oprah's magazine, I am falling in love with the deep wisdom and fun, practical spirit the pages contain.