I am on a birthday roll y'all. Next Friday, Dr. Maya Angelou will turn 80. Yes, she will have been on this earth for eight decades. To celebrate her life, a couple of friends and a family member came together to create, Maya Angelou, A Glorious Celebration (Doubleday, $30). This new book is part tribute, part scrapbook so it sounds like a real keeper. We all need to go out and get it. Why? Because although most of us have read her books, future generations, with their limited attention spans, might confuse her with a greeting card writer. I shudder at the thought. Besides, none of us will live forever. We have to make sure that Dr. Angelou's work will continue to speak for her.
Besides being a prolific writer, poet, actress and speaker. She is an all-around inspiration. In her time on this earth, she has known real struggle, something more than the mere inconveniences that we often let paralyze us. And she has successfully turned trials into triumphs. Now we know that her life wasn't a fairytale where things happened overnight, she endured and perservered. That is something we need to do more of in our own lives. I suspect we do it anyone but perhaps we might think about grumbling a little less about things that don't really matter.
So the next time that life slaps the wind out of you (and we all know that it can happen at any moment), think of her abiding strength and keep rising. USA Today has a great article about her in today's paper, click on the link below. (Oh, and let me know if these things don't work, I will endeavor to fix these technical glitches.)
