Yesterday’s post reminded me of this quote by Maya Angelou:
I’ve been very fortunate… I seem to have a kind of blinkers. I just do not allow too many negatives to soil me. I’m very blessed. I have looked quite strange in most of the places I have lived in my life, the stages, spaces I’ve moved through. I of course grew up with my grandmother: my grandmother’s people and my brother are very very black, very lovely. And my mother’s people were very very fair. I was always sort of in between. I was too tall. My voice was too heavy. My attitude was too arrogant – or tenderhearted. So if I had accepted what people told me I looked like as a negative yes, then I would be dead. But I accepted it and I thought, well, aren’t I the lucky one.
—Conversations with Maya Angelou
I laughed when I read this quote. Yay, Maya!
Maya Angelou, April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014.
June 3, 2014
That was one amazing lady! I can spend hours reading her quotes and musing over each one. So much insight and emotions!
How has reading her changed you? Her approach to life was a lot less passive than yours seems to be.
That’s a great attitude. What an amazing woman she was.
Yes, that last line is priceless.
She was an amazingly positive and optimistic person. I think I’m pretty blind to the negatives myself, but compared to Maya I’m almost Victor Meldrew.
She’s definitely an inspiration.
I had never heard of Victor Meldrew, so I am now checking him out. Thanks.
Victor Meldrew – typical grumpy old man, star of the BBC TV sitcom “One Foot in the Grave”. Always objecting to absolutely everything.
what a treasure she was.
i read ‘i know why a caged bird sings.’
one has to wonder how she even survived. much less thrived!
and i always thought her voice was beautiful. actually mesmerizing.
Agreed!
I’m going downstairs with my kneecap in bend position now. I’d say OUCH!! on every step, as my knee hates bending.
Before I only used my normal knee to do the bending which didn’t hurt.
Now I say Yay Cynthia to the bent knee. I learned that from Jean. Notice she uses Yay a lot. Your body hears what you tell it. OUCH or YAY–???
Yay!
You may have somethin’ there. I used to read my emails and say, “Whaaaaaaat? That’s ridiculous.” Now I read them and say, “Wow! That’s brilliant!” And now my knees feel better.
Re: from my daughter’s husband
For all her activity, her sense of humour and common sense is what attracts me to her. Suffice it to say that if a person withe her experience can find such humour, someone like me has no business complaining. Mine, incidentally is not quite passive CM! It just seems so. My life is by and large equanimous is a better choice of words to describe. I can get very active as the recent exchange of mails between me and Amazon showed. And neither Maya nor I were /am aggressive! Here is an example of what appeals to me from her quotes. “I’m grateful to intelligent people. That doesn’t mean educated. That doesn’t mean intellectual. I mean really intelligent. What black old people used to call ‘mother wit’ means intelligence that you had in your mother’s womb. That’s what you rely on. You know what’s right to do.”
Have you changed your mind about not having free will? If not, then you are never the doer, just the instrument. I’m guessing Maya didn’t feel that way.