Bought at the St. Emma Monastery flea market to release in the wild.

Maya Angelou passed away a few days ago and I was moved by how many of my social media friends were touched by her life and her work. It prompted me to seek out this book on my bookshelf and see what I have been missing.

I first became aware of Maya Angelou when she read a poem at President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration, but what a life she had already lived! This book tells the story of the first sixteen years of that life—what it was like for her, as a young girl of color, to grow up in the South in the 1930s and '40s, to be bounced around between her divorced parents and her paternal grandmother, to figure out the world around her and forge her own path. I appreciated her mother's philosophy to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst, so you are unsurprised by anything in between.

One of my favorite passages is: "Few, if any, survive their teens. Most surrender to the vague but murderous pressure of adult conformity. It becomes easier to die and avoid conflicts than to maintain a constant battle with the superior forces of maturity."

Maya Angelou not only survived, she thrived.

Left with a couple of friends shortly before 5 p.m. Thanks!

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