Oprah Winfrey

There were quite a few recipes in the book that I would love to try. My mom and I used to make Rosie's unfried chicken (now it's Art's she loves). We went to Lyfe restaurant quite a few times and had Art's unfried chicken and it was delicious.
I'm excited to try the early garlic soup since I have about 40 heads of garlic growing in my garden this year.
I also love how much she loves truffles! I adore truffle oil and need to invest in a good truffle salt. While pricey you use little and it really pumps up your food.… (more)

This is a book which I didn’t expect to get much from. But, surprisingly, I did. This book is a selection of her “essays” from her O magazine which she publishes. It’s very short, only 228 pages. The title comes from a movie critic who asked her this question which at the time she was unprepared to fully answer. These chapters are her focused answer to that earlier question. I found this book informative because it gives you the methodology for why she sees things the way she does. It’s also a clear roadmap for how people in Hollywood see things. People in Hollywood all use the same vocabulary and this fixed terminology is meant to cut down on discursive thinking. For this reason, What I Know For Sure is even more informative than for just what Oprah says. It gives you an insight into how Hollywood people become trapped into certain ways of thinking and become herd bound to a culture which admits no variation. These very short chapters (a plus) are organized into 8 subjects: Joy, Resilience, Connection, Gratitude, Possibility, Awe, Clarity, and Power. Oprah is not going to overpower you with vocabulary. Not because she’s not bright, but because she wants to reach the broadest audience possible. She kept my attention even though I don’t care about some of the people she interacts with. She started off working news in Baltimore and then moved to Chicago. From news she switched to her talk show. Things which I found noteworthy: She had a priest come bless her recording studio when strange things began to happen. I assume it was a Catholic priest. Her favorite books: The Four Agreements (Miguel Ruiz), The Seat of the Soul (Zukav), A New Earth (Tolle), Book of Awakening (Nepo), among others. These authors all strive for spiritual evolution and expanding consciousness with little to guide that journey except trial and error. This is an age-old predicament. Do we trust ourselves to reach self-knowledge and enlightenment or should we trust others to help us on the way forward? Oprah seems to say trial and error is the way to trust going forward because trusting a religion or any religion is rigid and stifles growth. Religion is essentially non-spiritually expansive. This is the Tinseltown doctrine of truth, sadly. Needless to say, the actual higher power which Oprah admires from here below is a construction of God who is not Christian at all. It is a theology of Averroes who was a medieval theologian and philosopher. God is removed from the whole world and the people on it, but God can use the people on it to gain in consciousness what God himself lacks. It's a strange vision of reality but one which Oprah’s favorite authors seem eager to embrace. Oprah says, “Our main job in life is to align with the energy that is the source of all energies, and to keep our frequency tuned to the energy of love. This I know for sure.” Oprah knows parts of scripture and quotes Jesus, “Ask, and it shall be given…seek and ye shall find”. But when she talks about God it is as the Creator God, the bringer of peace of heart. She also quotes Isaiah 54:17: “No weapon formed against you shall prosper” which she interprets as everything having a silver lining. She claims her favorite bible verse is Psalm 37: 4, “Delight thyself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Oprah claims she grew up Baptist but never really says if she still considers herself one. She seems to avoid the issue of religious participation on principle. Oprah’s greatest blind spot is her lack of self-criticism. It’s one thing to be harsh in self-judgement but another of being unaware of how we see ourselves in light of the Christian story of salvation which she sees apparently as a closed story. Oprah says she was the product of an illicit encounter, struggled life-long to be accepted, was abused as a youth by a relative, lost a child when she was age 14. I think many female readers would see this book as worthwhile, if read as a memoir, which technically it isn’t. Oprah owns large acreages of Hawaiian and California property.… (more)

An easy read with some insightful moments. I do love the way Oprah presents things but there was a lot of repetition in this - as you would expect from an anthology piece - but there are amazing pieces of advice to take away from it... and that is the real point of it.

Before you say yes to anyone, ask yourself: What is my truest intention? It should come from the purest part of you, not from your head. If you have to ask for advice, give yourself time to let a yes or no resound within you. When it’s right, your whole body feels it.
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