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Saturday, May 31, 2014

In Honor of A Queen

I had previously prepared a blog about why I hadn’t blogged but tonight I am blogging about the void left in the space of the Great Dr. Maya Angelou. She was like none before her and none to come. Her height her class her elegance her beauty her intelligence and whit it will takes years for us to truly understand the depth but like most if not all greats she will be studied and sought for understanding and in that lives will be changed and closed spirits will open light will shine in dark places and the curious will find “a rainbow in the clouds”.

I had the privilege of being in her presence only once I attended a gala in which she was invited to speak. As a child I had dreamed of going to one of her lectures at the university, but as life began to pull me by the time I came back to that dream she had retired from teaching. So on the night I meditated for twenty minutes prior to attending the gala, I was so in the clouds I got lost getting their but I wanted my heart and mind to elevate so that I could absorb every second, and having been robbed of many of my memories by depression I made notes after. Yet there are moments that I hold dear from that evening that are simply details that I didn’t think were worthy of writing down, but hold deep in my heart; like when she cleared her throat with a cough and we (the audience) did the same she said “now you are with me in a way that we are beginning to mimic each other”. She held us that captive as she spoke of her childhood and caged bird experience, her health and her need for her glasses. She stood and sat as her body allowed. She taught me that evening about Terence the first African American Playwright, you could read what a Google search further enhanced. She referenced him for a point that she often made: ”I am human and nothing about the human experience is alien to me.” This was her message for forgiveness and a roadmap to resisting judgment. Then in her beautiful baritone she sang these beautiful words “When it looked like da sun wasn’t gone shine nomore God put a rainbow in the clouds.” O Lawd I never forgot it! I wept at the power of it. Much like I later saw her weep at the thought of how much God loved her.

There is popular Gospel song entitled Take me to the King, my jam! To have been in the presence of Dr. Angelou for me was like greeting a Queen. I was forever changed and touched by the magnitude of her presence. So as I return to my great love of writing and sharing my stories I will take so many things with me from this wise woman, who had the privilege of being loved enough to offer love and self respect to the world in a way that we could mimic her until we got it for ourselves.

Enjoy God’s Presence Great Queen Dr Maya Angelou.

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