I have a list of folks I know
all written in a book,
and every now and then...
I go take a look.

That is when I realize these names...
they are a part,
not of the book they're written in....
but taken from the heart.

For each name stands for someone...
who has crossed my path sometime,
and in that meeting they have become...
the reason and the rhyme.

Although it sounds fantastic...
for me to make this claim,
I really am composed...
of each remembered name.

Although you're not aware...
of any special link,
just knowing you, has shaped my life...
more than you could think.

So please don't think my greeting...
as just mere routine,
your name was not...
forgotten in between.

For when I send a greeting...
that is addressed to you,
it is because you're on the list...
of folks I'm indebted to.

So whether I have known you...
for many days or few,
in some ways you have a part...
in shaping things I do.

I am but a total...
of many folks I've met,
you are a friend I would prefer...
never to forget.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
the swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
what they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing,
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
the need for my care.
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

© Maya Angelou

"Touched by an Angel"
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of lonliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
We dare be brave
And suddenly we see
That love costs all we are
And will ever be.
Yet it is only love
Which sets us free.

© Maya Angelou

"If we have no peace, it's because we've forgotten that we belong to each other."-Mother Teresa

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."-Jimi Hendrix

"We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot."-Eleanor Roosevelt

"At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want."-Lao Tzu

"Your sacred space is where you find yourself again and again."-Joseph Campbell

"Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well."-Vincent Van Gogh

"People who are connected to their energy, including their sexuality and their passion, are in tune with the divine, for expressing the inherently loving side of human nature is the core of unfeigned spirituality."-Wilhelm Reich

"Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living. Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
There is a time for the evening under starlight,
A time for the evening under lamplight
(The evening with the photograph album).
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning."- T. S. Elliott

"A Vision without a task is just a dream.
A task without vision is drudgery.
But if I have a vision AND a task,
I can change the world."-Black Elk

"You must remain your own witness, marking well everything that happens in this world, never shutting your eyes to reality. You must come to grips with these terrible times, and try to find answers to the questions that they pose. And perhaps your answers may help not only yourself but also others."-Etty Hillesum, "An Interrupted Life"

"One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest."-Maya Angelou

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,
but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within."-Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

"Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!"-Jane Austen

"The butterfly is a flying flower....The flower a tethered butterfly."-Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes
it has gone through to achieve that beauty."-Maya Angelou

"Confidence never comes from having all the answers; it comes from being open to all the questions."-Earl Gray Stevens

"Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul."-Marcus Aurelius

"THIS world is not conclusion;
A sequel stands beyond,
Invisible, as music,
But positive, as sound.
It beckons and it baffles;
Philosophies don't know,
And through a riddle, at the last,
Sagacity must go.
To guess it puzzles scholars;
To gain it, men have shown
Contempt of generations,
And crucifixion unknown."-Emily Dickinson

"According to Buddhism, your unhappiness is never really caused by circumstances. The real cause of unhappiness is your belief that your happiness is caused by circumstances.

You do not have to accomplish or acquire or earn anything to experience peace, love, and joy now. You do not have to "make" your own happiness all you have to do is to stop making yourself unhappy and to remember your own deepest truth as a being of Spirit.

Does this mean that we simply give up all of our desires and dreams? No, because it's not the goals and dreams that are the problem, but rather how we understand and live toward them. Going for your dreams can be an intrinsic part of the joy and passion of your life and can be how you concretely express the love and joy that are your truth. But as soon as you (choose to) believe that your happiness is dependent on a certain outcome, or that "things" have to change for you to be happy, then you are living in fear. You are no longer expressing your joy, but are desperately trying to achieve or earn it."-William R. Yoder Ph.D

"If you should take the human heart and listen to, it would be listening to a seashell. You would hear in it the hollow murmur of the infinite ocean to which it belongs, from which it draws its profoundest inspiration, and for which it yearns to return."-Edwin Chapin

"This is not the time to stay at home,
But to go out and give yourself to the garden.
The dawn of joy has arisen,
And this is the moment of union, of vision."-Rumi

"There is a difference between Tough and Strong. "Tough" means you have armor on, and cannot feel. "Strong" means that you're available to be touched, and are willing to deal with the manifold sensations that go along with letting others come into close proximity with your tender parts."-The Reconnection

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift
The rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honours the servant
But has forgotten the gift."-Albert Einstein

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive,
and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."-Anais Nin

Be confident enough that you won't settle for a compromise just to get by.

Appreciate yourself by allowing yourself the opportunities to grow, develop, and find your true sense of purpose in this life.

Don't stand in someone else's shadow when it's your sunlight that should lead the way.

Allow your own inner light to guide you.