Forgiveness

I don't know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself.

It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes - it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, 'well, if I'd known better I'd have done better,' that's all.

So you say to people who you think you may have injured, 'I'm sorry,' and then you say to yourself, 'I'm sorry.'

If we all hold on to the mistake, we can't see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can't see what we're capable of being.

You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one's own self.

I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that's rough. But you can overcome that.

 The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don't have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.

~ Maya Angelou




God Bless!  ~Jan

I Heart Ann Taylor & White House Black Market

I'm so looking forward to my day of shopping with my beautiful daughter Samantha today. 

Happy Days! 

- Jan

I think she would say...

Live your life to the fullest,

Accept change, yes nothing will stay the same,

Love yourself, so you can love other people,

Listen to your body,

Rest when you are tired,

Get excited about something,

Give yourself to someone,

Let go and trust,

Laugh at yourself, yes you're a little nutty,

Don't compare yourself to others,

There is no comparison,

Forgive yourself when you do something wrong,

Learn from it, it's okay,

Have something really old in your house,

Have something very new in your house,

Give love freely,

Love unconditionally,

Don't waste precious time holding grudges,

Never keep score,

Dance,

Relax more often,

Treat yourself every single day to something simple,

Be kind,

Be honest,

Just breathe,

Be yourself,

There's no such thing as perfect,

There's no such thing as average,

Relish you,

Love you,

Be kind to you,

Laugh more often!

A Good Laugh!

Mommy Dearest

She left me when I was becoming a woman,

Becoming a young lady,

The formative years,

Years of preliminary guidance,

Help me when I stumble,

Whose there when I fall,

Still remember the foggy days,

The ones I can block out,

The painful ones that stunned me,

Days that threw me for a loop,

We all must live the truth,

The truth and reality,

I clench it in my fist,

The truth it sets me free,

The issues were not mine,

Her issues, his issues, these are not mine,

I am not to be ashamed,

I lived as a child for a short time,

Relish those moments,

Oh yes I do,

Oh Mommy Dearest please set me free,

There's no room for you now,

No trust in my heart,

Shattered and broken,

It will not last,

The hope it lives on,

Go away little bird I call hope,

I'm setting you free,

I live in the reality,

That it will never be,

I dream of us laughing,

Birthday cards from you arriving,

I squeal with delight,

In my mind I paint the picture,

The one that really doesn't exist,

The one where you act like my Mom,

And care that I exist,

When does a girl,

Finally let go,

Wonder if I'll hang on,

Paint that picture over again,

The one where she changes,

Tells me I'm precious,

Has came to her senses,

Apologizes she forgot I exist,

My birthday it's coming,

Wonder if I'll march to mailbox with high hopes,

Of receiving a wish,

One that says she really gives a @#$%

And why would that matter,

Truly after all these years,

Why won't the little child,

Just let me be?

What's Your Untold Story?

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

-Maya Angelou

Phenomenal Woman

  

Phenomenal Woman

by Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
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.

 

God Bless all of us Phenomenal Women!  

How Do You Make People Feel?

 

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. 

 

- Maya Angelou 

Balboa Island

We just returned from a wonderful trip to California.  I so love Balboa Island! You can see why...

Fun boutiques and shops.

Yummy ice cream and frozen bananas!

I was surprised to see how much over cast there was, but it was still beautiful!