Category Archives: SpoQuo

RIP Marvelous Maya

28 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by in SpoQuo

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As most of you heard, Maya Angelou passed away today and for this SpoQuo post, here is a compilation of only a few of her quotes and her most famous poem:

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.”

“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.”

“Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.”

“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

“If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.”

 

STILL I RISE

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 backyard.

 

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.

 

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I’ve got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

 

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.

-Maya Angelou

Rest in Peace, Maya Angelou. Thank you for your art and the inspiration you have provided to all of us.

SpoQuo – Little Women

13 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by in Girl Talk, SpoQuo

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Sigh – my first post in over 4 months. It’s been quite hectic with the new job, bridesmaid responsibilities, etc and I’ve neglected this blog. Now I’m back – with a vengeance 🙂 Coming soon – a St. Louis recap and another style post on several outfits worn during my blogging hiatus.

In the meantime, I’m starting a new category for Inspirational Quotes or SpoQuo for short. It will consist of memes, quotes, phrases, pictures and other relevant things to inspire us women.

The first quote comes from a movie I was watching last night – Little Women. Haven’t read the book but it is on my reading list. Anywho, there is a scene where the mother is having a discussion with her daughters and says:

“If you feel your value lies in being merely decorative, I fear that someday you might find yourself believing that’s all that you really are. Time erodes all such beauty, but what it cannot diminish is the wonderful workings of your mind: Your humor, your kindness, and your moral courage. These are the things I cherish so in you. I so wish I could give my girls a more just world. But I know you’ll make it a better place.” — Marmee, Little Women”

― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

This part really stuck with me. It’s hard to look past all the unrealistic, photoshopped and “ideal” images of beauty spewing from every aspect of our lives and to resist the need to find or maintain superficial youth. But as it fades with time, what’s left? (And, I say superficial youth because I believe, it’s crucial to stay young at heart; maintain the creativity that accompanies youth. Not to take yourself too seriously and not to live your life caring about about what other people think. True freedom is the ability to be and love yourself.)

Continuing on the topic, we all tell little girls how cute or pretty they are and we really need to curb that attitude. I am guilty of it too but I try to make a conscious effort to tell girls to value their brains, not just their beauty. To care about what they can make of themselves, to have big dreams and to work hard at achieving them.

If only Louisa May Scott could see us now.