What Do You Know For Sure?

There was a time when I was a dedicatd Oprah watcher and O reader. Oprah's column "What I Know For Sure" was one of my favourite parts of the magazine. One month she wrote a column about blossoming rather than shrinking down to fit in and the tag line was "You are built not to shrink down to less, but to blossom into more. To be more splendid. To be more extraordinary. To use every moment to fill yourself up." (Read more: http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/What-I-Know-for-Sure-Becoming-Who-You-Are#ixzz3TulOcECu) It is one of my favourite quotes and I used it in this lotus book some years ago.

For about a year after it was published the column was posted on my fridge. In those days my house was full of teenage girls from early morning until dinner time. It was also full of teenage boys from mid afternoon until well past dinner time. My daughter and her friends were a particular concern of mine -  all bright, all unique, all a bit different. What I didn't want them to do was shrink to fit, shrink to be less scary to boys, shrink back when they reached the time to fly, shrink like women in the past had shrunk.They arrived for breakfast before school (don't ask!) and blew in like a gale force wind after school for tea and hot chocolate and copious amounts of raw vergetables, fruit, nuts, any unmarked (Hands Off!) cheese. They all read the article on the fridge, joked about it, thought about it. Even some of the troop of boys who were attached to my other one read it when they were helping to make dinner (I always made enough for two more and find myself feeding some of those boys still now that my son is home 'temporarily'.)

Over time it started to look ragged. Despite this being a house full of paper, notes were jotted on it, sauce stains appeared, Gameboy codes were inscribed....I took it down and put it somewhere safe. You know what comes next don't you? I have no idea where it went.

And then I was in the States and cruising through Barnes and Noble letting the universe guide me to some good books and there it was, a new book from Oprah, a compilation of the best from “What I Know For Sure”. With great hope I opened up the book to look for the Table of Contents. There isn't one. I started to flip through and suddenly there it was! I didn't buy the book that day but waited till I got home. I have been enjoying all the articles but none more than the one about blossoming. (I was surprised to find the article on line when I was typing this up and wanted to include the quote. I guess it was available all along if I’d thought to look.)

So what do I know for sure? Twelve years after that column was published those teenagers are all grown and coping with life as twenty somethings in a big, expensive city. By and large they have blossomed into a pretty unique and interesting (okay, complicated) group of adults. It hasn't been an easy road for any of them but they are a pretty resilient bunch. I know for sure I don't want them blowing through here daily anymore but I do love to hear how they are when they do show up and I'm glad my family home was, and still can be, a port in a storm when it is needed.

I know for sure that I've reached the place where I am thrilled to have an empty nest. It gives me more time to blossom because I still believe I can be more!

So, what do YOU know for sure?





(And if one of the things that you know for sure is that you want to try the lotus fold that I used to make the book with the Oprah quote in it, here is a link to a short video that shows how to make the basic fold, how to shape it to make shamrocks and flowers appear and how to glue it in a journal. http://youtu.be/ypQFqG9oYoY)