MuguRe

Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now, Part 3 The Sweetness of Charity The New Testament informs the reader that it is more blessed to give than to receive. I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. The size and substance of the gift should be important to the recipient, but not to the donor save that the best thing one can give is that which is appreciated. The giver is as enriched as is the recipient, and more important, that intangible but very real psychic force of good in the world is increased. When we cast our bread upon the waters, we can presume that someone downstream whose face we will never know will benefit from our action, as we who are downstream from another will profit from that grantor’s gift. Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence –neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish – it is an imponderably valuable gift. Each of us has a few minutes a day or a few hours a wee...

Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now, Part 2 What Should She Do? She will need to prize her tenderness and be able to display it at appropriate times in order to prevent toughness from gaining total authority and to avoid becoming a mirror image of those men who value power above life, and control over love. It is imperative that a woman keep her sense of humor intact and at the ready. She must see, even if only in secret, that she is the funniest, looniest woman in her world, which she should also see as being the most absurd world of all times. It has been said that laughter is therapeutic and amiability lengthens the life span. Women should be tough, tender, laugh as much as possible, and live long lives. The struggle for equality continues unabated, and the woman warrior who is armed with wit and courage will be among the first to celebrate victory. Passports to Understanding Human beings are more alike than unalike, and what is true anywhere is true ...

Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now, Part 1 In All Ways A Woman In my young years I took pride in the fact that luck was called a lady. In fact, there were so few public acknowledgments of the female presence that I felt personally honored whenever nature and large ships were referred to as feminine. But as I matured, I began to resent being considered a sister to a changeling as fickle as luck, as aloof as an ocean, and as frivolous as nature. The phrase "A woman always has the right to change her mind" played so aptly into the negative image of the female that I made myself a victim to an unwavering decision. Even if I made an inane and stupid choice, I stuck by it rather than "be like a woman and change my mind." Being a woman is hard work. Not without joy and even ecstasy, but still relentless, unending work. Becoming an old female may require only being born with certain genitalia, inheriting long-living genes and the fortune not to be...

I enjoy reading Iyanla. I especially enjoyed reading "in the meantime' because i was really in the meantime. And I also enjoyed reading "Value in the Valley' because it made me understand the valleys that life will take me through. I have carried most of those lessons as I continue this journey called life. Most especially PEACE, TRUST & FAITH . Surrendering the preoccupation with others and what they think about me long enough to find peace, trusting God to provide for me, protect me and that everything comes on time and in time are not very easy lessons. Like Maya Angelou, I can say, Still I rise! And I continue to appreaciate the meantime and the valleys and remembering that every dark cloud does have a silver lining. I continue to count my blessings, to appreaciate the friends I have made along the way and learning that the ones who move on have accomplished that which they were sent to do in my life and I in theirs. Of course the difficult ones to let go are ...