Diamonds: The Beautiful Thing About Today

Joy is not in things; it is in us.
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Tc Morgan via Compfight

I would like to say that Maya Angelou’s worldview shaped mine, including the way I view what it means (and how awesome it is) to be a woman.

I love Maya Angelou.

She is and always will be one of my favorites. She was one of the LIVING poets that I shared with students. I love many of the things she said over the years during speaking engagements and interviews, such as the idea that people won’t remember what you say or do, but they will always remember how you make them feel … about how we can be a rainbow in other people’s clouds … about how we are only as blind as we want to be … about how growing up means we stop blaming our parents … about the greatest agony of all–bearing an untold story within oneself … about how we can change because of something that happens to us, but it doesn’t mean we have to be reduced by it … about how love knows no boundaries … about how we should seek life’s laughter. There is more.

I would like to say that Maya Angelou’s worldview shaped mine, including the way I view what it means (and how awesome it is) to be a woman.

MY all-time favorite Maya Angelou quote comes from my all-time favorite Maya Angelou poem, “Still I Rise.”

It goes a little something like this:

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

When I read those lines for the first time … I was just like BOOM. YEAHHHHH. Still. I. Rise. I am woman! THIS, ladies, is how you SHOULD feel … most of the time. THIS is how you should approach life.

Maya Angelou captured the POWER of the WOMAN. WITH WORDS.

The beautiful thing about TODAY is that from this point forward Maya will live FOREVER through her words and through the worldview she shared with her readers and loved ones.