25 Lessons: What We Learned from Oprah

by Nancy Mehagian

What would Oprah do? 

She would age without whining.  (Most of the time). She would read 'til her eyes were blurry. She would love fiercely, laugh ferociously and let tears fly unabashedly. She would go to nature to heal. And travel with Gayle to let loose. And she would say good-bye with grit, humor and without regret. "25 Lessons What We Learned from Oprah" is an intimate and often light hearted look at how some of the teachings of The Oprah Winfrey Show influenced the personal lives and career paths of the authors, Southern California friends who, like Oprah, love their dogs, their close friends, a good book, Mother Nature, "aha" moments and reeeeeaaaaalllly good food.  

Nancy Mehagian is a teacher, healer, epicurean and writer (Supernatural Kids Cookbook, Siren's Feast An Edible Odysey). Judith A. Proffer is a former newspaper publisher (LA Weekly, Sun Community Newspapers), entrepreneur (Magpie Gourmet Mini Pies) and writer. As unlikely as it is that a dirt poor girl from Mississippi would become buddies with the booty shaking star of Saturday Night Fever are pretty much the same odds of these two friends ever meeting up. Nancy was a spirited hippie who would open the first vegetarian restaurant on the island of Ibiza, hanging out with the likes of Joni Mitchell and Taj Mahal. Judith was raised in Michigan with corn-fed sensibilities and big city dreams who longed to meet Walter Cronkite (she did) and own her own newspaper (she did that too). Along the way they each got a little lost, they each got a little found and they happened upon an adventurous and everlasting friendship in one another. And it was Nancy, a frequent Oprah viewer, who encouraged Judith, a decidedly non-viewer, to watch the pull-out-all-the-stops emotional, engaging, enlightening and entertaining 25th and final season. 

So inspired by the lightning paced illumination they have each embraced and tried their best (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) to emulate over the years, this book was birthed to offer simple and practical lessons that can offer the reader keys to make changes in their own lives. From the searing reality of the importance of forgiveness (essential, but painful and rarely easy) to the creation of a vision board (fun, fun, fun), 25 Lessons delivers tales of compassion, courage and evolution. Not to mention the smack in the face of instant karma. Oprah taught the world to live, love and laugh. With 25 Lessons, Mehagian and Proffer share practical tools on how to live out loud, how to love ourselves and how to laugh with the whole of our hearts.  

120 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

A friend once called me the Picasso of the potato. I'm a first generation Armenian American whose family narrowly escaped genocide. I left the security of suburban American life to wander the globe and in 1969 established the first vegetarian restaurant on the magical island of Ibiza. After a stint dancing cabaret in Syria, I was incarcerated in an infamous London prison, along with my newborn baby, where I managed, even there, to pioneer a healthy way of eating. Of my culinary memoir Quincy Jones wrote "A spicy brew of recipes and adventures. I don't know whether to eat this book, smoke it or make love to it.
Siren's Feast--part cookbook-large part raucous memoir."