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<\/a>When I was a young girl, I dreamed of being a writer.\u00a0 More specifically, I wanted to be a poet.<\/p>\nAs evidence of this desire, my mother still has a treasure trove of cards with endearingly unpolished poems written in them by an aspiring writer.<\/p>\n
I entered a Young Author\u2019s Contest in elementary school with A Collection of Monthly Verses.\u00a0 <\/em>When I won a plaque and a balloon for that collection, I fancied myself a true poet.<\/p>\nTwo of my favorite writers were Gwendolyn Brooks and Maya Angelou. Despite the fact that we came from very different times and very different backgrounds, their words connected with me.<\/p>\n
And inspired me.<\/p>\n
(I also loved Emily Dickinson, but ever since someone told me that many of her poems can be sung to the theme song of Gilligan\u2019s Island<\/em>, they have never had the same impact they once held.)<\/p>\nEmily Dickinson might not have had staying power, but Maya Angelou did.\u00a0 I was drawn in by her:<\/p>\n
voice
\nwords
\npassion
\nwisdom
\nauthenticity<\/p>\n
One of my favorite books \u2013 and the one I immediately pulled out upon hearing of her death \u2013 is Wouldn\u2019t Take Nothing for My Journey Now.<\/em> Full of candor and wit, love and yearning, she shares some lessons of living.<\/p>\nThe most powerful one for me, is the one I want to share with all of you.\u00a0 It brings me to tears every time I read it and follow the opening of her heart.<\/p>\n
May your hearts also be opened through the truth presented in the words below:<\/p>\n
Excerpt from \u201cPower of the Word:\u201d<\/p>\n
In my twenties in San Francisco I became a sophisticate and an acting agnostic. It wasn\u2019t that I had stopped believing in God; it\u2019s just that God didn\u2019t seem to be around the neighborhoods I frequented. And then a voice teacher introduced me to <\/em>Lessons in Truth, published by the United School of Christianity.<\/em><\/p>\nOne day the teacher, Frederick Wilkerson, asked me to read to him. I was twenty-four, very erudite, very worldly.\u00a0 He asked that I read from <\/em>Lessons in Truth, a section which ended with these words: \u201cGod loves me.\u201d I read the piece and closed the book, and the teacher said, \u201cRead it again.\u201d\u00a0 I pointedly opened the book, and I sarcastically read, \u201cGod loves me.\u201d\u00a0 He said, \u201cAgain.\u201d\u00a0 After the seventh repetition I began to sense that there might be truth in the statement, that there was a possibility that God really did love me. Me, Maya Angelou. I suddenly began to cry at the grandness of it all. I knew that if God loved me, then I could do wonderful things, learn anything, achieve anything. For what could stand against me with God, since one person, any person with God, constitutes the majority?<\/em><\/p>\nThat knowledge humbles me, melts my bones, closes my ears, and makes my teeth rock loosely in their gums. And it also liberates me. I am a big bird winging over high mountains, down into serene valleys. I am ripples of waves on silver seas. I\u2019m a spring leaf trembling in anticipation.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was a young girl, I dreamed of being a writer.\u00a0 More specifically, I wanted to be a poet. As evidence of this desire, my mother still has a treasure trove of cards with endearingly unpolished poems written in them by an aspiring writer. I entered a Young Author\u2019s Contest in elementary school with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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