"A Woman Should Have"...A Poem By Maya Angelou

I love the term "Renaissance Woman" and it kind of fits for this lens and why I wrote it. My Aunt Sherry, my mother's sister, was the one who sent me this poem.

In the years since my Grandfather passed in 1999, we have lovingly called my Grandmother, who will be 85 in May, the "Renaissance Woman".

My Grandmother, My Aunt and many other special women in my life fit as Renaissance Women. It's a tribute to them!

What is a Renaissance Woman to me and why do Maya Angelou's words of wisdom mean so much? Why are they a reflection of my life and the special women in my life?

A Renaissance Woman is strong, determined, courageous and self-sufficient, but yet humble enough to admit that she needs the others in her life and their contributions. Your loved ones, business partners and those that influence your life are interwoven into who you are and what you are about.

A Renaissance Woman possesses a genuine passion for life, their beliefs, their convictions, their interests and much, much more!

A Renaissance Woman is strong enough to stand on her own, to be alone, to reflect on life and what is important. She strives for her goals tenaciously, loves unconditionally and knows her boundaries. She's there when she's needed and empowers her loved ones to move forward in their growth in life, business and all areas of their lives.

A Renaissance Woman doesn't long for her youth. She grows from her birth until her death, each experience a stepping stone to who she becomes. She learns from her past history and roots and continues to move forward towards her passions, beliefs and the ideal lifestyle as she defines it.

A Renaissance Woman makes and learns from her mistakes in life. She knows she can't change the past but the future is always hers to make different.

A Renaissance Woman is a combination of learned traditions and the modern woman. She melds the two together to create a quality lifestyle.

A Renaissance Woman doesn't dwell in the past and greets every day as a new day and opportunity. She looks at the glass half full instead of half empty. She is a product of her mindset and every day is a new day for her. She greets the day with a feeling of optimism and upon close of the day she reflects on the day, sees her accomplishments, acknowledges where there is room for improvement and then puts it behind her as the new day dawns.

A Renaissance Woman is the wearer of many hats. None of which singularly define her but the melting pot of her experiences embodies who she is in her heart and soul. She is a freer spirit and knows she is not defined by one aspect of her life but the sum total of what her life is truly about and what she stands for.

A Renaissance Woman is a force to be reckoned with. She is admirable, loving, tenacious, determined, confident, optimistic, reflective, passionate, caring, deep thinking and absolutely wonderful. She is who she is and strives to get better all the time.

The Renaissance Woman is there in myself, my loved ones, my friends, my business associates and all the women that I admire. She embodies all the things a Renaissance Woman is and is a woman of love, pride, respect and so many good qualities but most of all a good heart and sense of humor. My hat goes off to the Renaissance Women in my life!

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.
Maya Angelou

All great achievements require time.
Maya Angelou

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.
Maya Angelou

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.
Maya Angelou

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.
Maya Angelou

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
Maya Angelou

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!
Maya Angelou

I believe that every person is born with talent.
Maya Angelou

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.
Maya Angelou

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.
Maya Angelou

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.
Maya Angelou

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

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.
Maya Angelou

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.
Maya Angelou

If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
Maya Angelou

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
Maya Angelou

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.
Maya Angelou

If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.
Maya Angelou

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.
Maya Angelou

Life loves the liver of it.
Maya Angelou

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ''I'm with you kid. Let's go.''
Maya Angelou

Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.
Maya Angelou

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at it destination full of hope.
Maya Angelou

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.
Maya Angelou

My life has been one great big joke, a dance that's walked a song that's spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.
Maya Angelou

Nothing will work unless you do.
Maya Angelou

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

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.
Maya Angelou

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.
Maya Angelou

Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.
Maya Angelou

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
Maya Angelou

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.
Maya Angelou

The sadness of the women's movement is that they don't allow the necessity of love. See, I don't personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed.
Maya Angelou

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.
Maya Angelou

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

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.
Maya Angelou

There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.
Maya Angelou

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.
Maya Angelou

While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God's creation.
Maya Angelou

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.
Maya Angelou