I love Oprah. I’ve been a devotee for most of my adult life. When she ended her syndicated daytime show, I counted down to the last one, then followed her to OWN – the Oprah Winfrey Network.

She offered journals to the first people to sign up for ‘lifeclass’ – a show devoted to lessons about living your best life. I signed up because I wanted the reminder e-mail about the start date as it was a few weeks off at the time. But I had no idea whether or not I was in the number to receive a journal.

In fact, I forgot about it.

I remember her saying during one of the lifeclass episodes that she had been unhappy about the quality of the first journals presented to her for approval and that she wanted the quality to reflect the life lessons she wanted us to make notes about in the journal.

So yesterday, the first day of the new year when the mail ran, I received a package from OWN. What could it be? I’d long forgotten about the journal.

But she didn’t forget. And she didn’t have a lackluster journal sent out. It is beautiful and feels important in my hand. A silk page marker is sewn into the binding and an elasticized ribbon holds the lined pages together around the leather-like cover. It could be something purchased from a specialty gift store.

Just another reason to love Oprah and her generosity. Knowing her, she probably sent everyone who registered for ‘lifeclass’ a journal. It wouldn’t surprise me.

Now, I need to fill it with quotes, words of wisdom, mental exercises, challenges, and goals.

But as I was taught by my mother, you must not use a gift until you have written a thank you note. So here it is – my sincere appreciation for knowing there is a woman in the world who keeps her standards and her word. As Gayle King once said, what makes Oprah special is, “While she’s pulling herself up with one hand, she’s pulling others up with the other hand.”

Thank you Oprah. I’ll use my journal well.

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