But still, like dust, we rise.

So I was reminded the other day how much I love Maya Angelou.

We rearranged our spare bedroom/guest room/office the other day and put in a couple more bookshelves from the garage and after Ben set them up, I was excited for my project for the night, of alphabetizing and organizing all the books into sections and digging out book after book from boxes that haven't been touched in months.

Sadly, as much as Ben and I both share a love for reading, we already filled up one of the really tall, 8 foot bookshelves that has been set up in our house since June, and I only had 2 boxes of my books in that one, and then his books filled up the rest. We think it's hilarious how on one shelf, we have the movies we own, all 7 we have to our name, but then 3 book cases full of books lol. (But, we're Netflix people, who needs to buy dvds, these days? Although I will say, the next two movies I will add to my personal collection, all of TWO dvds to my name, Invisible Children and Step Up 2... Inception and Step Up 3 will be my next purchases, without a doubt!)

Anyway, mom stopped by the other night while I had one of my girlfriends over to hang out and watch a movie and so I showed them the new setup in the room and my mom was like, I'm not surprised, you have always loved reading, yada yada yada... then she looks for the latest Maya Angelou book, Letters to my Daughters, and explains to my friend, why she named me after her (my middle name is Maya).

“I wanted my daughter to love to read and write, and during my entire pregnancy, I had happened to read all of Maya Angelou's books, so I was inspired and thought it was a beautiful name.”

Well, mom your wishes came true. Not only do I absolutely LOVE to read and write, but Maya is one of my favorite authors. I recited this poem with a couple other students in a Literature class in college and just thinking about her and the verses of one of my favorite poems of hers, “Still I Rise,” got me thinking about why those lines really speak to me.

There is a resiliency that we as women possess, some days I am just in awe and amazed. A strength and an ability God has given us to be able bounce back from whatever life throws at us, and find that we are made new.

Stronger, not struck down.

In a way that makes me see, live, in living color before me, that God, you are powerful. And mighty to save. As I see those of us, of all ages, races, backgrounds, situations... rising together from the ashes, emerging through the situations we felt were sure to kill us, as different women.

Stronger. Wiser. And more beautiful. Walking trophies, covered by a grace so free... And still, like dust, we rise.

::

"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 back yard.

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.

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.