Yes this is now my line! I will be repeating it over and over for the next few weeks heck for the rest of my life. Thank you to Canadian Tire who was a sponsor of this event for making this day happen in my life. There is so much to share I don’t even know where to begin..So I think I will make this first blog in my series about the biggest moments that occured and that have me floating today!
The line up to get into the Oprah Winfrey Lifeclass was filled wih 8500 people around a HUGE block of Toronto…My son Alex and I snaked ourselves around the Toronto Convention centre trying to find the end of the line. We were supposed to get a seperate line for the Emerald tickets and grand prize but we could not find anyone who knew about this line. I wore heels for the first time in 9 months and i have blisters on both baby toes this morning which I am surprisingly grateful for!!
We got to our seats and found we were in the 3rd row not the first row that we had been told by Canadian Tire. This was still awesome and I did not complain at all!! 3 rows behind me was a lady that I work with from my little incident management team at Davis and Henderson. Remember that there were 8500 people in this room and directly behind me is a lady I talked to on Friday!! We got a picture together and I hope to share that soon!
The first couple hours are a bit hazy for me right now, but a number of speakers 1 from Dragons Den, another from Air Farce and then individual sessions with Deepak Chopra, Iyanla Vanzant, Anthony Robbins, and Bishop T D Jakes. I know those memories will come flooding up over the next few days and I will share the things I learned from those talks at that time!
Oprah arrived in the convention hall and she was truly beautiful and glowing. She was so appreciative to be in Toronto and thanked a new twitter friend during her banter! She had an easy gentle personality and sat on laps, shared chairs with attendees. She took questions from a few members of the audience and had incredible stories to teach us lessons on gratitude. It was amazing to watch the 4 powerful life coaches on the stage tripping over each other to talk. It was clearly so hard for those huge personalities to contain themselves. Poor Deepak could barely get a word in edgewise and Oprah singled him out regularily to get his insights into thoughts and questions we were pondering.
Anthony Robbins did an Emotional Flood exercise that had me crying like a baby. First I had to put my hands on my heart and thank my heart for beating strongly and holding on for me through all trials and tribulations. I felt a lot of gratitude in that moment and realized just how many times my heart had been broken in my lifetime and thanked it for being so strong! Then I had to dig deep and remember big moments of gratitude in my life. I remembered the Lady bus driver in Markham Place who offered me a live in Babysitter job 2 weeks after I left my family home due to an attempt on my life. I remember the shame and fear I felt telling my stepfather that I was close to becoming homeless in 2006. He saved my life by not rejecting me and helping me get out of the pain. I remembered the day I met my friend Victoria and how we connected at a level like we were connected in a prior life. I felt grateful to my aunt for taking me for a beautiful haircut at 9 years old, she made me feel pretty for the first time!
I was blubbering and crying heaviliy this moment truly hit me hard. Anthony Robbins had us stop and tell our neighbour what we felt..I turned to my 18 year old son and he told me he didn’t do the exercise…I blubbered a couple of the stories to him and felt kinda silly 
But it was a valuable experience none the less!
Once the show itself was over Alex and I headed out into the 8500 people leaving the convention centre. We were moving like snails they only allowed a dozen or so people up the escalators at a time. While we were milling around worrying that we would miss the photo opportunity a young lady in her 30′s started chatting with Alex and I. We told her we had the photo pass and she was so jealous and eventually I asked Alex if he really wanted a picture with Oprah, and if he didn’t maybe he could give the pass to the lady. He handed it over to her and she was beyond excited. She said you have no idea who I am. She then told Alex that she runs a company in Toronto that focusses on motivating and supporting teens and young adults in becoming entreprenuers and making their lives shine.
Alex will be going to a Rapid Results Workshop in Toronto with Jairek Robbins who is the 27 year old son of Anthony Robbins! Theresa Laurico is a amazing woman that Alex and I spent an hour talking too. I got to see my Alex open up to her in ways I haven’t see in years. Extremely valuable experience for him that I hope he opens himself up to and uses to launch his life forward!
I got in line with Theresa for the picture and in front of me was Karen Bradley who I worked with at Cybermation 10 years ago. It was amazing to see her and reconnect. I told Theresa and Karen about the work I am doing to bring the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution Day to London Ontario and I told her about Megan’s illness too. She is promising to put me in touch with the author of Meals that Heal Julie Danuik. I have been following Julie on Twitter for a while and I just added her on Facebook I also looked for her shows on the Oprah Canada network …I hope that this connection will become a special one for Megan and I!
I finally got to the front of the line and I quickly told Oprah that I had received the email from Jamie Oliver Food Revolution day and that I had won a first prize from Canadian Tire to be at the Life Class! I hugged her and thanked her for inspiring me to take things further and I smiled for the camera with her. I told her that I will make this my life mission and she gave me thumbs up as I left!
Thats where I have to end this first blog. The impact of that hug and that moment will be implanted in my mind as an AHA moment for the rest of my life. I promised Oprah I would make this my life mission …I better follow through!
