The Art of Saying "Yes"



At 4:00 every afternoon, I tuned in to see if Oprah was going to have an "A-Ha" moment!

I was a faithful watcher of "The Oprah Winfrey" show.  I gasped at all the startling makeovers.  (After one such show, I rushed out and got fitted for a decent bra.  Start with the foundation, ladies!)  I cried when she introduced us to a mother who had terminal cancer.   This beautiful mother filmed hundreds of hours of videos for her daughter to watch as she would eventually journey on without her mother.  (I am grateful my mother, Prairie Ma, still has my back.)  I learned from Dr. Phil, before he had his own show, "there are two sides to a pancake."  (My children HATE it when I tell them that - which makes me repeat it even more.)

I also learned how to say no from the Oprah Winfrey Show .  For those of you who don't know Oprah; she is a people pleaser.  At one point in her life, she said yes to everything and ended up running herself ragged.  So, as Oprah learned how to say no, she taught her viewers to do the same.  (Apparently the "disease to please" runs rampant in women.  Women were saying yes to every bake sale, book club, and car pooling gig.)

Naturally I assumed I also had the "disease to please" and started saying no to everything.  I said "No!" to school potlucks.  "No!" to birthday parties.  "No!" to Fourth of July fireworks.  "No!" to meeting new people and seeing old friends.  I was  awesome at saying no. It came so easily to me!   

A couple years ago I realized I had misidentified myself as a people pleaser.  Unlike Oprah, I wasn't trying to please anyone, I was just a grumpy woman who said no to everything.

I have been practicing the art of saying yes for a couple of years. I say "Yes!" to potlucks and get to eat yummy food with fun people.  (Though I steer clear of  mayo based salads and bread baskets.   Oprah has wisely taught me to fill up on veggies and lemon water.)  I get to laugh with old friends and start journeys with new friends.  Prairie Sherry is queen of getting me to say yes to things I normally wouldn't try.  With her by my side, I have said yes to blogging, starting a business, supporting a darling girl in Ecuador, canning, and risking arrest by singing at the Wisconsin State Capitol.

I challenge you, Prairie Friends, to say "Yes!" to something you normally would say no to (unless you truly have the disease to please - then you should probably consult archived episodes of the Oprah Winfrey Show.)

Prairie Eydie