Quote

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at it destination full of hope. 

                                         --Maya Angelou                       

Note to self

Dear self, 
It's ok to have been hurt by one person and fallen out of love with them but you should never give up on loving someone else after that because you were hurt.

That's all I had to do

something in the way you made me feel.

not when you said we were friends

but when you acted like we weren't.

you know,

when I would call,

text,

email

often;

I bought souvenirs for your kids,

I even baked a cake for parties that I weren't  invited to.

& all I had to do was to stop communicating.

to stop hearing from you.

I've waited long enough
(not really waiting,
living my life)  for you to call or text or email 

to say something as simple as 

'wassup man, long time no hear. what have you been up to?'

& all I had to do was to stop communicating.

to stop hearing from you?

Maya Angelou says, 'when someone shows you who they really are, believe them'.

I believe you.

(note to self -stop communicating to find out who will wonder why they haven't heard from you. those that you will never hear from again, don't matter. except your family-

I used to call my sister alot. When I stopped calling her, I never heard from her again. Oh, I still leave happy birthday happy mother's day or merry christmas  voicemails on her phone when she doesn't answer. She never responds. This blog entry isn't about her though. It's for someone else. My sister just happens to do the same thing)

Happy Birthday Maya Angelou, a Phenomenal Woman!

and my favorite quote of hers;

when someone shows you who they really are, BELIEVE THEM.

In order to find her

The Power of Words - Maya Angelou

I am a Human Being - Maya Angelou

Note to self- Persistence

I think and think for months, for years. Ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.
-- Albert Einstein
 
Back in the day, a girlfriend was getting her Masters in African Studies, and she invited me to see Maya Angelou, who was coming to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She had personally invited Ms Angelou to speak at an event, and I had a front-row seat.  I was so very excited. I have been a fan of Ms Angelou since I was in the 2nd grade when my speech pathologist introduced me to poetry and the writings of Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks and Maya Angelou. At the conclusion of her very encouraging and inspiring discussion was the question and answer session, when I asked the following question:
 
"If there was one piece of advice you could give aspiring writers, what would it be?"
and she said,
"Keep trying. My poetry was rejected 210 times before the first one was published. If I had given up at the 210th time, you might not have ever heard of me."
 
I'm carrying that answer to this day, and am applying it to every single facet of my life, to keep trying, and to be persistent. I remind my nephew of this all the time. Success is around the corner. Maybe not around the very next corner, but if you keep trying, you'll find it.

Happy Birthday, Maya Angelou!

“See, you don’t have to think about doing the right thing if you are for the right thing then you’ll do it without thinking.”

                --Maya Angelou

from Maya Angelou on Facebook

                     --This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before.

Still I Rise

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated

                                      --Maya Angelou

President Praises Dorothy Height's Achievements at Funeral

President Obama joined a capacity crowd of the rich, the famous, and the beneficiaries of Dorothy Height's struggle for equality in her final sendoff today. The President delivered a moving eulogy at Washington's National Cathedral for Height, who died last week at the age of 98.


From the President's eulogy:

"Look at her body of work. Desegregating the YWCA. Laying the groundwork for integration on Wednesdays in Mississippi. Lending pigs to poor farmers as a sustainable source of income. Strategizing with civil rights leaders, holding her own, the only woman in the room, Queen Esther to this Moses Generation -- even as she led the National Council of Negro Women with vision and energy -- (applause) -- with vision and energy, vision and class.
But we remember her not solely for all she did during the civil rights movement. We remember her for all she did over a lifetime, behind the scenes, to broaden the movement’s reach. To shine a light on stable families and tight-knit communities. To make us see the drive for civil rights and women’s rights not as a separate struggle, but as part of a larger movement to secure the rights of all humanity, regardless of gender, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity. It’s an unambiguous record of righteous work, worthy of remembrance, worthy of recognition.
And yet, one of the ironies is, is that year after year, decade in, decade out, Dr. Height went about her work quietly, without fanfare, without self-promotion. She never cared about who got the credit. She didn’t need to see her picture in the papers. She understood that the movement gathered strength from the bottom up, those unheralded men and women who don't always make it into the history books but who steadily insisted on their dignity, on their manhood and womanhood. (Applause.) She wasn’t interested in credit. What she cared about was the cause. The cause of justice. The cause of equality. The cause of opportunity. Freedom’s cause."
Later, poet Maya Angelou, herself in a wheelchair, read from Psalm 139.

1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
5 You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
how vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.
19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

--courtesy, theroot.com

A woman should have

I saw this poem on a friend's desk at work, and I immediately thought about the women in my life-- my mother, my sisters, my God-daughter, my future wife and any daughters we might have, and the women I come across in my everyday life:


A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....Enough money within her control to move out And rent a place of her own even if she never wants to or needs to...
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....Something perfect to wear if the employer or date of her dreams wants to See Her in an hour...
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...A youth she's content to leave behind....
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....A past juicy enough that she's looking forward to retelling it in her Old Age....
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .A set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra...
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....One friend who always makes her laugh...And one Who lets her cry...
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....A good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her Family...
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....Eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems, And a recipe for a meal that will make her guests feel Honored...
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....A feeling of control over her destiny...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...How to fall in love without losing herself..
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...HOW TO QUIT A JOB, BREAK UP WITH A LOVER, AND CONFRONT A FRIEND WITHOUT RUINING THE FRIENDSHIP...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...When to try harder...And WHEN TO WALK AWAY...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW... That she can't change the length of her calves, The width of her hips, or the nature of her parents..
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...That her childhood may not have been perfect...But it's over...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...What she would and wouldn't do for love or more...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...How to live alone...Even if she doesn't like it...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...Whom she can trust, Whom she can't, And why she shouldn't take it personally...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...Where to go...Be it to her best friend's kitchen table...Or a charming inn in the woods...When her soul needs soothing...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...What she can and can't accomplish in a day...A month...And a year...


--by Pamela Redmond Satran


I especially love the first line because alot of women are stuck in abusive relationships because they can't afford to leave. One relative of mine, whose name or relation I won't mention,  felt stuck because she didn't have the money to leave, so she stayed and endured further abuse until she had enough money to leave. Hopefully, if it's God's will, and He blesses me with daughters, from the moment they understand English, they will learn about independence, and about how Phenonemal a woman they will be. They will know about the author of the above poem, and they will also about Maya Angelou's Phenomenal Woman,
another really great poem
                                                

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”  -- Maya Angelou

Quote of the week

"I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back."
 --- Maya Angelou

someone is a wee bit arrogant, don't you think?

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