In Good Company

I am a discriminating Oprah viewer. I do not watch every show but choose based on guest and topic. The show on April 16 satisfied both criteria - Maria Shriver on how she doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up.

I have been a fan of Maria Shriver since I was a girl. She is my age, and I watched her grow up as part of the Kennedy clan. Her mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, is sister to John, Robert, and Ted. I envied her life of politics, affluence, and extended family. Then Maria became a journalist who traveled and reported important stories. She married Arnold and thought, as she shared yesterday, that she had married into a life far from politics where she could work hard in her chosen profession. That all changed when he was elected governor of California and she lost her job due to her new title of First Lady. She lost who she thought she was; she didn't know how to define herself. She shared thoughts about this time in her life in an eloquent speech at The Women's Conference in September 2006. If you've read this far, please use the link to read her speech. Her words resonated with me. My first thought was that I'm in good company.

My second thought was that if Maria Shriver is questioning who she is and what she wants then I am in the right "place" at the right time. This is the time in my life to ask those questions. If not now, when? Circumstances provided the opportunity for me to stop the busyness so I can think about my life and what's next. I am no longer spinning. And in the quiet I now enjoy I can ask what matters to me.