"Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told:

'I'm with you kid. Let's go.'"
                                                                 – Maya Angelou

About Maya Angelou

American poet and author Maya Angelou is best known for her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She was born in St. Louis in 1928 and grew up in rural Arkansas. Due to her activism, Martin Luther King asked her to take a leadership position in his organization. In 1993, at President Clinton's request, she wrote and performed a poem at his inauguration. She has also directed films and appeared on television. She teaches at Wake Forest University.

                       ALL MY PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED

 

   If I've asked for something in prayer, I must prepare myself to receive the answer. By opening my mind and heart to whatever the answer may be, I remain receptive to spiritual wisdom. I also must be open to any manner that the answer will come to me.
   It may come through a conversation with a friend, an line in a story or even from the lyrics of a song. I may see a sunrise or overhear a thoughtful conversation. When I feel a deep resonance and peace within I know it is the message for me.

 

If you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding; ... then you will ... find the knowledge of God.--Proverbs 2:3, 5

THIS HAS PROVEN TO BE TRUE FOR ME, SUCH AS DURING THE LIFE - AND - DEATH MEDICAL JOIRNEY I TRAVELED FROM 2001 to 2008:

"One day in retrospect the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful."
                                                                           Sigmund Freud

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything"

                                                                               Mark Twain

    THIS IS THE SINGLE MOST DIFFICULT SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLE FOR ME TO FOLLOW:
                        Love your enemies
         and pray for those who persecute you.

                               -Matthew 5:44

"The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labour is immense."
                                                                                        – Arnold Bennett

 

Popular British novelist Arnold Bennett wrote more than 30 well-received novels, including The Old Wives Tale, the fictional life story of two sisters. He was born in 1867 in Hanley, in the heart of the six Staffordshire towns known as the Potteries. Although he left as an adult, settling in London and then Paris, he set much of his fiction in his birthplace, giving the novels a gritty realist texture. He died in 1931.

"Most people are so busy knocking themselves out trying to do everything they think they should do, they never get around to do what they want to do."
                                                                        – Kathleen Winsor

(Note: Kathleen Winsor is my kind of writer. Her novel Forever Amber was published during World War II and sold 100,000 copies the first week in spite of our country's preoccupation with defeating the enemies. Maybe that was because her story was considered "racy" - sexy stuff along the lines of D.H. Lawrence. Took courage to write without being limited by the usual standards of correctness, political or religious.)

"If no one ever took risks, Michelangelo would have painted on the Sistine floor."

                                                                                               – Neil Simon

"I just kept on doing what everyone starts out doing. The real question is, why did other people stop?" 
                                                                                 William Stafford 

About William Stafford

American poet William Stafford is best known for his first book of poems, Traveling Through the Dark, published when he was 48. Stafford was born in 1914 in Kansas and spent most of his life in Oregon. He was drafted into the army in 1941 but opted out as a registered pacifist. His memoir, Down in My Heart, details the forestry work he did during that period. As a poet, he captured the earthy poignant details of everyday life. Despite his late start, he published 57 volumes of poetry. He died in 1993.

                "Believe that you can do it, under any circumstances. Because if you believe you can, then you really will. That belief just keeps you searching for the answers, then pretty soon you get it." 
                                                                                                – Wally "Famous" Amos

About Wally "Famous" Amos

The name Wally "Famous" Amos is synonymous with chocolate chip cookies. He was born in Florida in 1936 and moved to New York at age 12 to live with his aunt, who baked him cookies. After serving in the Air Force and getting his GED, he went to work at the William Morris Agency, first as a secretary and then as the agency's first black talent agent, wooing clients by sending them homemade cookies. He opened his first store in Los Angeles in 1975. He lives in Hawaii and serves on the Board of Directors of the Read It LOUD! Foundation, an organization that promotes reading aloud to children.