More Than Just Rhymes

Poet Maya Angelou has shared her brilliance through her words for decades.  On an episode of Oprah’s Master Class Dr. Angelou dropped some knowledge that we could all take to heart.  There was no iambic pentameter or sonnets recited.  She simply spoke of her own life lessons; prescriptions worth taking.  Digest:  

• When someone tells you “I am selfish, I am mean, I am unkind” believe them.  When people show you who they are believe them.
• “Potential” isn’t a quality, it’s a fantasy.  Erase it from your Life Partner List of pros and cons.
• All secrets are control strategies.  If someone’s keeping secrets from you, you’re being controlled and that’s not love.
• Don’t have mud on your wings.  Don’t let bad energy block your fullest highest expression of yourself.
• Look for the experience, not the feeling.  Look for the experience, not the excitement.  Love doesn’t have to fix you or change you.
• Do not let yourself be surrounded by people who will peck you to death.
• Don’t let the past hold you hostage.  Forgiving is giving up the hope that the past could be ay different.

Let’s Review: Gems from Iyanla Vanzant

Last Fall when Oprah’s OWN Network began the series called Oprah’s Lifeclass I tweeted lessons I learned and documented these words of wisdom in a journal.  This past weekend I cracked open that journal and revisited the messages that were shared by several of the guest educators.  The following are twenty of several poignant comments made by the dynamic Iyanla Vanzant.

1. The best students get the hardest tests.
2. Release the physicality!  When you lose someone you love they will always be with you.
3. Two “pretend people” can never have a real relationship with each other.
4. Whenever you are able to give someone the gift of saying they have been seen, heard and matter you’ll see joy rising up.
5. An inch is a cinch.  A yard is hard.  Never give up!
6. Practice, practice, practice. Awareness without action leads you nowhere.  Keep peeling the layers of the onion.
7. When you don’t show up with who you are, people fall in love with who you are not.  Then when they find out who you are, that’s when they leave.
8. You will never heal if you keep telling lies about what is really hurting you.
9. “I am willing to be with myself” and “I am enough” are statements we need to tell ourselves.
10. Stay in your car, in your lane, on your road, in your world.  Mind your own spiritual business.  Don’t let others mind it for you.
11. Joy is pregnant all the time.
12. You can accept or reject the way you are treated by other people.  Until you heal the wounds of your past you will continue to bleed.
13. Guilt is something wrong with what I’ve done.  Shame is something wrong with who I am.
14. Stop wanting to be right about how wrong they were.
15. One of the most damaging things humans do is try to think for God.
16. It’s not about catching up.  It’s about catching on.
17. Death is to remind us of life.  Death helps us see, feel and know that nothing is promised.  Live each moment to the fullest.
18. EGO = Edge God Out.  This is what ego is: (1) I am what I have. (2) I am what I do. (3) I am what other people think of me.  The 3 major components of the ego: (1) I am separate from you. (2) I am separate from what’s missing in my life. (3) I am separate from God.
19. When you don’t trust in yourself you’re not trusting in the wisdom that created you.  That’s an insult to your creator.
20. For every act of evil, there are a million acts of kindness.

BONUS (my favorite Iyanla-ism): When you see crazy coming, cross the street!

Rewind. Stop. Press Play.

In the 1980s the VHS machine and tape revolutionized how we watched television.  Setting the timer for your favorite shows while you were out of the house was the newest luxury.  Finding out that someone in your household recorded over the episodes of Friday Night Videos was grounds for World War III.  Before Blockbuster video became a household name in 1985, I got video rentals from the local mom and pop shop.  The first video I ever rented was Michael Jackson’s The Making of Thriller documentary in 1983.  I was 13 years old and I must have driven my family crazy with the repetitious play.  Michael and his desire to elevate music videos into short movies mesmerized the whole world.  With Thriller he changed the game for the music industry.

Fast forward to February 8, 1986 – another game changer was about to take place.  On this date Oprah Winfrey became the first African-American woman to host a nationally syndicated talk show, and daytime television would never be the same.

First Oprah Winfrey Show

My VCR went into overdrive.  Recordings of her talk show was imperative so I could respond to the lunchroom conversation when someone asked, “Did you see Oprah yesterday?”  For 25 years that question continued to be asked.  Whether you are a fan or foe, you must admit the lessons from those shows infiltrated the consciousness of the world.  I’ve always been a fan.  Thank you Oprah for shining your light on me.  I think today I’ll dust of a VHS tape for old times sake.

Revisiting “Roots”

In January 1977 I was 6 years old when the original broadcast of the miniseries Roots came on ABC.  Although I wasn’t old enough to see it in then, I have memories of watching it as an adolescent and being horrified.  I vividly remember the feeling I had after seeing the scene when Kunta Kinte, played by LeVar “Reading Rainbow” Burton, was refusing to accept his slave name and was severely whipped until he finally said: Toby.  The thought of that moment still gives me chills.

Tonight at 8pm EST on OWN, Oprah Winfrey is airing a special cast reunion “Oprah and the Legendary Cast of Roots 35 Years Later.”  I’ll be watching.  Let’s see what kind of chills I get this time.