Learning from Oprah

I would like to say I have started 2012 with a new relish for life but I just don't have those feelings. 2011 has left me feeling jaded, disillusioned and isolated and I am struggling to reason why.

Maybe its because I have endured more than my fair share of surgeries which unfortunately all had post surgical complications. While I happily consented to the surgery I required over time I think that the anesthetic used may have caused me feeling moody, unfocused and not sleeping well.

And on top of that while I finished my studies, the realisation that all the time I spent struggling with what it all meant that's now shifted to another level, feeling futile because I can't find employment to match my qualification and ultimately my life experience.

Throughout the time since I left my work at Pembroke at the end of 2008 I have been heavily involved in all sorts of including gardening at my local community garden, and my foodies work which has lead to completing my field placement at a supermarket in Adelaide's northwestern suburbs that supplies low cost groceries to people on low incomes. While I finished my field placement weeks ago I want to not feeding my insecure feelings by being on the couch potato that has been absorbed by the fridge, the TV or face book and using my skills to pay it forward as Oprah demonstrated.

Oprah, that legend of daytime television is famous for many things but over the past decade. The first one that I'm a huge fan of is paying it forward. Charity and volunteer work has always been important to me and this is probably the reason that paying it forward resonates with me.

The other valuable lesson I have taken from Oprah is to be thankful for the life you are given. So while I'm currently battling with my life view with positive light the thoughts and actions of friends, colleagues and family. I am thankful for the things little things. The things that keep me out of a coffin.

And while that last statement may sound alarms to some reading this take notice of the prior message not the closing message.