Oprah's Latest Health Scare Reminded Her to Listen to Life's Signs
I believe in signs. They fill me with wonder. Because I know for sure: Each and every one of us is a part of the Life force. We don't have a life. We are Life, expressed in human form. And we're in a state of perpetual evolution through our individual and collective consciousness. Everything is in order, as Life is constantly telling us. If you're tuned in, you recognize the signs everywhere. You see how one thing is connected to everything.
This happens to me continuously, so much so that the moment something feels out of order, I know it truly is.
One day back in August I was at a meeting at Apple where I felt so fatigued, I could barely concentrate. After the meeting, it was all I could do to crawl into the car. I thought I must have contracted a bad case of flu.
On the ride home, I started to feel a slight pain in my right side, near my kidney. I shifted around to see if it would go away. By the time I got home (and went immediately to bed with chicken soup), the pain had subsided. Middle of the night it came back. Next morning subsided. Midday so fierce I was doubled over, crying. Off I went to the emergency room, where the pain disappeared again. I felt foolish trying to explain to the doctors what had been so severe only 20 minutes prior. They took a urine sample and gave me a CT scan, suspecting I'd passed a kidney stone. They found no stone. But they did find pneumonia.
Pneumonia is serious business. (Don't take my word for it–Google it.) My lungs were rattling with fluid. I left the emergency room with antibiotics and orders not to fly for a month. I do not remember a time since my early days in Chicago, in the mid-'80s, when I've stayed in one place for a month. Staying put would entail canceling lots of meetings and appointments.
I have a history of showing up no matter how bad I feel. Now I was officially grounded. Doctor's orders. I actually danced a little jig: What a blessing to be able to take care of my health without feeling guilty. I was grateful for the pain in my side that had forced me to get medical attention.
I don't know how long I'd had pneumonia. I'd been on vacation in Europe and noticed that I was coughing at night. But otherwise I felt fine, so I blamed the coughing on air-conditioning. There's no telling how long I would have gone without antibiotics had it not been for the searing pain. It was a message that something was out of order and I needed to take action.
I know by now that life speaks first in whispers. When we don't listen, the whispers get louder. Messages unheeded turn into problems and eventually crises.
I wonder: What's whispering to you right now?
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