Whenever I go watch TJ play a musical instrument, I’m reminded that I’m not smarter than a 5th grader. Tonight was a talent show at his school, and since TJ has made advanced band at school, he and his classmates played 2 songs. When it was over, I said, “I could do that”. But I only said that so he could remind me, “No you can’t.” I think it’s so fun that I’m musically stupid and my kids are not and love reminding them how proud I am that they can read music and stuff. I so wish I could. It’s my wife’s fault that they can. If they can kick a soccer ball, that’s my fault.

Hey Gary and Cheryl. I spent your birthday money. I bombed the hills with Zeus tonight near my house. Tons of fun. Can’t wait to see my students faces when they see my new ride. Every Sunday night I steal Summer’s board when she brings hers to youth group and she always yells at me and says that she wants to ride it and I never let her. Now, she can fight me for mine. Thanks!

This morning on the way to school TJ screams, “THERE SHE IS. STOP!”

I stopped and said, “there who is?”

The mom duck.

For reals. There she was. I snapped a pic. She is/was raising at least 11 ducks in our coyote infested neighborhood. She left one in our yard. So now she’d down to 10. I wish you luck oh duck mom. If you need help, we live on the last house on the right before the park and my wife will save you.

(my cell rings. It’s my wife)

Hey babe, how’s your day going?

Fine. Thanks. What’s up?

There’s a baby duck in our backyard.

What?

There is a little duckling in our backyard. What should I do?

Um, I don’t know. Catch it.

Then what am I going to do with it?

Eat it.

Brian!

Put it in a box and call someone.

Who am I gonna call?

I don’t know, Seaworld? Take the duck down there and give it to them.’

I don’t have time to drive to Seaworld.

……..
(my office now floods with high school girls who overhear my conversation from across the hall)

I want the duck.

Yeah she wants a duck.

Let me ask my dad…. um… my dad says I can’t have a duck because the dog will eat it.
…………

Brian, this duck is cornered outside and like hiding in our backyard. I think Zeus has it scared.

……….
(coworker now enters the office)

Call project wild life. They’ll come get the bird.

Who knows this kinda stuff? No wonder you work with junior high.

…..

(An hour later)

Ok, I called project wildlife. They said they’d call me back. But I have to go to Jakes t-ball game so I put the duck on the porch in a cardboard box with a towel to keep it warm. Any other ideas?

Give it some water?

How?

Um… like a dish or something.

They said they’d come by and look at it.

I said it was brown and yellow and fuzzy.

They said it sounded domestic and they don’t take domestic birds.

I told them it wasn’t yellow. I’m just kidding. It was just brown then.

……

(2 hours later)

The duck is gone.

What?

Yeah they took the duck and left me a brochure about project wildlife. Today I saved a duck.

Good for you babe. You win an award.

Thanks.

…….

it’s not every day you save duck’s life. (no, we have no photo proof. I was not home and my wife doesn’t take pictures evidently)

KELLY (ILLINOIS): Well, my question is regarding religion and spirituality.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): Big one.

KELLY (ILLINOIS): I had a Catholic upbringing, I married a Catholic, and we’re raising our children this way. In reading books such as Tolle’s, I’ve really, it’s really opened my eyes up to a new way of thinking: a new form of spirituality that doesn’t always align with the teachings of Christianity. So my question is to you, Oprah, how have you reconciled these spiritual teachings with your Christian beliefs?

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): Oh, the question’s to me. I was resting knowing it was going to about—I’ve reconciled it because I was able to open my mind about the absolute indescribable hugeness of that which we call “God.” I took God out of the box because I grew up in the Baptist church and there were, you know, rules and, you know, belief systems in doctrine.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): And I happened to be sitting in church in my late 20s, and I was going to this church where you had to get there at 8 in the morning or you couldn’t get a seat. And a very charismatic minister, and everybody was just, you know, into the sermon. And this great minister was preaching about how great God was and how omniscient and omnipresent, and God is everything.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): And then he said, “And the lord thy God is a jealous God.” And I was, you know, caught up in the rapture of that moment until he said “jealous.” And something struck me. And I was like, I think about 27 or 28. I was thinking, “God is all, God is omnipresent, God is—and God’s also jealous? God is jealous of me?”

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): And something about that didn’t feel right in my spirit because I believe that God is love and that God is in all things. And so that’s when the search for something more than doctrine started to stir within me. And I love this quote that Eckhart has, this is one of my favorite quotes in Chapter 1, where he says, “Man made ‘God’ in his own image. The eternal, the infinite, and unnamable was reduced to a mental idol that you had to believe in and worship as ‘my god’ or ‘our god.'”

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): Now I think that’s very eloquently put by Eckhart Tolle in Chapter 1. But that is exactly what I was feeling when I was, you know, sitting in church that Sunday listening to the preacher. And you know, it’s been a journey to get to the place where I understand, as I said on the preshow here, that what I believe is that Jesus came to show us Christ consciousness.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): That Jesus came to show us the way of the heart and that what Jesus was saying that to show us the higher consciousness that we’re all talking about here. Jesus came to say, “Look I’m going to live in the body, in the human body, and I’m going to show you how it’s done.” These are some principles and some laws that you can use to live by to know that way. And when I started to recognize that, that Jesus didn’t come—in my belief, even as a Christian, I don’t believe that Jesus came to start Christianity.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): So that was also very helpful to me. And as I said earlier in the preshow here, there is a wonderful book called Discover the Power Within You by Eric Butterworth, which helped me reconcile the two. So that might be really good for those of you who are Christian and trying to balance the two. What would you say?

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): Because one of the things that Eckhart says in the beginning of this book on page 6 is, “This book’s main purpose is not to add new information or beliefs to your mind, or to try to convince you of anything, but to bring about a shift in consciousness, that is to say, to awaken.” He says that on page 6. And one of the reasons why I appreciate him so much is because he truly isn’t out to become your next guru. He doesn’t want, you know, all of you who are online with us tonight and those millions who will now hear about this book, he’s not interested in being your guru, correct?

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE): Yes, correct.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): Yeah. How would you respond to that? That’s one of the biggest questions that we have coming into our message boards about the same thing that Kelly is addressing here from Alton about spirituality and religion. This is not trying to tell you how to believe. And how do you advise people to reconcile this with their religious beliefs?

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE): Well, religion can be an open doorway into spirituality, and religion can be a closed door. It prevents you from going deeper. So that I love reading the New Testament, and I also read the Old Testament. Sometimes there’s some incredible jewels in there. And when I went through this inner transformation, and for the first time accidentally I picked up a copy of the New Testament at my mother’s place.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE): And I started reading, and I immediately recognized the deep truths that is there, and I realized the truth that is deeper, that is expressed in what Jesus said, is much deeper than what you, how the church interprets it. There’s a depth to it. And it reflects your own depth when you read it. So there’s no conflict between this teaching, which is purely spiritual, and any religion.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE): Because if you go deep enough in your religion, then you all get to the same place. It’s a question of going deeper, so there’s no conflict here. The important thing is that religion doesn’t become an ideology—so, “I believe this.” And the moment you say “only my belief” or “our belief” is true, and you deny other people’s beliefs, then you’ve adopted an ideology. And then religion becomes a closed door. But, potentially, religion can also be an open door.