Category: Blog posts

Still I rise – Maya Angelou

Bloganuary Day 25

Today’s Prompt: What is a song or poem that speaks to you and why?

I love the sassiness of Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise”. Whenever I read it, I read it in her voice simply because I love the way she recited it. It speaks to me on so many levels. I have been bullied. I have cried my heart out because I had not been invited to events by friends to protect the ego of another who was insecure about me. I have been looked down upon because I am a single mum and because I am not rich. Then of course there is the fact that I am a female and a person of colour working in the corporate world in a country where I am not black enough for some and of course, not white enough for others.

When I read this poem, I am reminded that despite all this, I still rise. I am able to stand on my own two feet and create a home for my son as a start. I know I do not do it alone. God has my back and surrounds me with the most amazing people to keep me rising and it is because I have realised this, I can now walk confidently through life. 

Still I Rise
BY MAYA ANGELOU

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.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

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?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Maya Angelou, 
"Still I Rise" from And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems.

How Do You Show Love?

Bloganuary Day 24

Today’s Prompt: How do you show love?

I would say that there are 2 ways that I show love largely. I love to give friends and family little gifts. Nothing extravagant though. For example, I work for an FMCG company that owns a lot of different personal care and household brands. There is always a product that friends and family say they love so I make sure I take them that product whenever I visit them. It brings me great joy to see the look of delight on their faces. Sometimes the gift is not a physical item. I also enjoy taking people to places that they have never been before or sharing an experience that is new to them.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The other way I show love is by sharing my knowledge. I love to see people grow and if there are any tools I can give them to get them to the next wrung on their ladder, then I will do so. I have learnt that I should only help when asked or else the seeds will fall on rocky ground. If I insist on ignoring this rule, I will get frustrated and the other person will continue to do what they have always done (and complain about it) still be merrily on their way. It’s not their fault though as they didn’t really want the help in the first place.

I am not a physical person as it’s not how I was brought up but I promised myself when my son was born that I would not raise him that way. We also didn’t say “I love you” very often in our family and I vowed that wouldn’t happen with my son as well. We say “I love you” to each other every day and especially when we are parting ways for the day and hugs are given freely when needed or requested.

That’s me for today. How do you show love?

What’s a lie you tell yourself?

Bloganuary Day 23

Today’s prompt: What’s a lie you tell youself?

Hmmm…if I knew it was a lie, would I still be telling it to myself? I think it’s fair to say that just about every day I work on uncovering what lies I have been telling myself because it’s what we humans do to ourselves. I would like to believe as I write this though that there are none that I am consciously aware of at this time.

Now if you asked me what one of the worst and biggest lies I have ever told myself was, I would tell you that it was the lie that I was not worthy of all the good things that life has to offer all the time. I always assumed that if something good happened to me that it was by pure luck and not because I was worthy. I have an inkling of where that belief probably came from but it doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is that I am aware of it and I am actively working on unlearning that load of hogwash and learning and accepting how worthy I truly am of all the great and wonderful things that God has given me and that He still has planned for me.

What lie are you unlearning and what is the postive message you are replacing it with?

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

Arthur Schopenhauer