Hello to You All, and Goodbye to an Inspiration.
Welcome to my shiny new site!
I’m not an expert at this web building lark, but it’s certainly easier than when I started, in 1995. Back then we all seemed to like luridly coloured text against even more lurid backgrounds; guaranteed to give you a headache. If we could do it, we did-but it wasn’t necessarily a good idea!
Almost 20 years on and it’s fantastic that places like WordPress exist to help everyone produce something that looks professional and which works on all platforms and devices; it’s brilliant. The theme which has helped me produce this is called Hueman, you can download it yourself here and then I would highly recommend using this YouTube tutorial by the awesome WPScupltor. He makes it incredibly simple to produce something fabulous; all you need to do is produce the content!
I’m going to be sharing my thoughts on how we can stay sane, find some peace, reach for the stars, achieve our dreams and stay connected throughout this crazy life. Oh, by the way, I just love this photo of a tree, silhouetted against the moon. I love moonlight (who doesn’t?), which for me, represents our spiritual self, and trees representing our grounded self. …I just like the picture! That’s probably enough cosmic stuff for now…
I was saddened to hear that the amazing Maya Angelou had passed Away at the age of 86. Born in St Louis, Missouri in 1928, she lived a full life; her son Guy B Johnson said: “Her family is extremely grateful that her ascension was not belabored by a loss of acuity or comprehension.
“She lived a life as a teacher, activist, artist and human being. She was a warrior for equality, tolerance and peace. The family is appreciative of the time we had with her and we know that she is looking down upon us with love.”It’s difficult to know just where to start with her achievements; Maya was a child of the depression who grew up in the south of the USA, a child of segregation. When just 7, she was raped; she didn’t speak again for 5 years, but read voraciously and began a love of learning that lasted a lifetime. As a teenager, she had a child and even worked as a prostitute for a time. Maya tells the story of her life in her 7 autobiographies including the 1969 ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’, a book still relevant today, with strong sales and a wide appeal-especially for young women.
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.‘If growing up is painful for the southern black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.”
Maya Angelou was a playwright, director, actor, singer, songwriter and novelist. She spoke several languages, worked with Martin Luther King in the 1960’s and produced some of the most powerful poetry of our time, including the 1993 Inaugural Poem ‘On the Pulse of the Morning’ which she read at President Clinton’s inauguration.
She simply refused to allow herself to be negative, to be bowed down by any circumstance.
Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.
