Born this day in 1928, Maya Angelou inspired generations of men and women throughout her extraordinary life. A Renaissance woman, she excelled in many roles, among them poet, author, playwright, actress, and civil rights activist.
Goosebumps rise whenever I read or listen to her poetry.
My favorite…Phenomenal Woman.
Established in 1981 by a unanimous United Nations resolution, International Peace Day (Peace Day) provides a globally shared date for humanity to rise above all differences and contribute to a building a culture of peace.
I’m sharing one of my favorite poems from Maya Angelou, a Renaissance woman who has inspired us with her extraordinary voice and legendary wisdom.
Poet. Civil Rights Activists. Historian. Best-Selling author. Professor. Actress. Playwright. Producer. Director. Professional Hopemonger. Maya Angelou wore many hats and she wore them well. Today, we bid farewell to this Renaissance woman who has inspired us with her extraordinary voice and legendary wisdom.
My favorite Maya Angelou quotes…
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.
It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.
I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.
Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.
Collecting quotations has been one of my lifelong hobbies. In the pre-computer days, I would jot down quotations on slips of paper and toss them in a desk drawer. Once a month, I would type them up and place them in a special file folder. I’ve kept the folder, but now use Pinterest and Goodreads to store my favorite quotations.
Some of my all-time favorites from four extraordinary women…
MARY OLIVER
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Listen—are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?
Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.
You want to cry aloud for your mistakes. But to tell the truth, the world doesn’t need any more of that sound.
MAYA ANGELOU
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.
A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.
When you know better, you do better.
Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.
ANNA QUINDLEN
Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination and the journey. They are the home.
The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.
If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.
The life you have led doesn’t need to be the life you have.
NORA EPHRON
Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.
And then the dreams break into a million tiny pieces. The dream dies. Which leaves you with a choice: you can settle for reality, or you can go off, like a fool, and dream another dream.
Joanne Guidoccio 