You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
(from Still I Rise, Maya Angelou)
As the curtain rose, she stood there bowing. She was already humble...the first time that I saw this magnificent woman in the flesh. She has inspired me and strengthened me, fed me words that I am to drink and allow my own babes to suckle from the nourishment...and there she was, bowed as we stood for her applauding her.
It was to be a reading, but she talked to us instead. She told us stories, like a grandmother, that were laced with lessons and sprinkled with laughter. She laughed like my grandmother. In those stories, I recognized lines and entire paragraphs from the books that she wrote...and that I read. She wasn't reading them, she just remembered the lines and incorporated them into the conversation.
...she laughed like my grandmother.
"Thank you, rainbow." She said in the beginning...and she concluded with, "I was made to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud."
I should remember that she said that. I should remember it when I am feeling "like a cloud across the sun" (Elton John). Sometimes I can be a rainbow in someone else's cloud.
You certainly are, RS. The courage and strength you have demonstrated on your blog has been inspirational to me and, I'm sure, to other's.
ReplyDeleteI Love that quote "I was made to be a rainbow...."
Thank you, Cat. It is my pleasure. When I started writing this blog, the last thing I imagined was that I could be "inspirational" to others - that I could be a rainbow. In fact, I did not even know how anyone would find this blog (apparently, it's been found 3,000 times!).
DeleteThere is so much pain and struggle in so many of my posts that I often think readers may find this blog to be somewhat of a "downer". Reading a comment like yours is encouraging to me. You encourage me to, not only keep writing, but to continue on my path to recovery. There is no telling whose lives I may touch along the way.
Well, I would just add the observation that we seldom 'know' ; I am glad that you have persons reading and commenting about how helpful your reflections are to them. What is inestimable would be those who read, find strength, but do not write comments.
ReplyDeleteI often wonder about people who may "pass by". I wonder where they come from, how they get here, and what they gather from here. Do they find a rainbow? I can only hope, but I will never know.
DeleteI wrote this post partly as a way to cheer myself up a little...bring light to the darkness of the past few days. It is your comments that lift me, and I see light in imagining that I may be in some way lifting others.