Truthfully, there is not much I can write that has not
already been written. Maya Angelou lived her life, publicly, thoughtfully,
openly, and loudly. She affected millions of people in a multitude of
ways. She played the role of my mother,
grandmother, aunt, friend, and mentor when I had none. I didn’t know her
personally, but I looked to her grace to guide me. One writer lovingly, penned her as a
professional “hope-monger” and she
always doled it out, when I needed it the most.
Through the years I have read every book, every article, watched every
interview and felt that she was ethereal. Upon her passing her friend Toni
Morrison is quoted saying, “ I thought that she was eternal, that she’d always
be there.” As did I. Here are a few things that Maya Angelou
taught me,
1.
“When people show you who they are, believe them
the first time.” This was life changing for me. I have a terrible habit of falling
in love with people’s potential, not who they really are. They know themselves better than anyone; so
trusting their take on themselves is an important action. Plus, it’s not fair to
thrust my expectations on anyone; I need to accept them for exactly who they
are at this exact moment.
2. “I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refused to be reduced by it.” It took a while for me to understand that I didn’t have to surrender my opinion of myself to anyone else. People can be cruel, and this little gem helped me immensely and repeatedly.
3. “Life loves the liver of it.” One can overcome great adversity, and still be joyful.
4. “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” In my opinion, the most interesting and inspiring people have been through “it”. Wounds and scars make for interesting people.
5. “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.” I interpret this quote as both passive and aggressive. You can’t always be a doormat, you have to push back sometimes, but you also can’t only take from people, you have to give too.
2. “I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refused to be reduced by it.” It took a while for me to understand that I didn’t have to surrender my opinion of myself to anyone else. People can be cruel, and this little gem helped me immensely and repeatedly.
3. “Life loves the liver of it.” One can overcome great adversity, and still be joyful.
4. “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” In my opinion, the most interesting and inspiring people have been through “it”. Wounds and scars make for interesting people.
5. “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.” I interpret this quote as both passive and aggressive. You can’t always be a doormat, you have to push back sometimes, but you also can’t only take from people, you have to give too.
6. “I am a
human being and nothing human can be alien to me.” We are more alike than we
know.
7. " Courage is the most important of virtues.” She
has said this in at least a dozen interviews. Her theory is that in order to be
consistently kind, loving, vulnerable, you must have courage and I couldn’t
agree more.
8. “When you know better, you do better.” Oprah has an entire montage on this, so I
won’t go into too much detail. But I will say that forgiving yourself you’re
past mistakes, and chalking it up to a lack of knowledge is very liberating!
I have held her words in my heart for my entire life, she
taught me more than I could ever put into words. Although I never met her she
always made me feel proud to be me.
Cheers to a well lived life!
* Photo credit to http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/pagegen/citation.html
