Everyone Is Blessed

Topic: Gratitude

If we change the way we think of charity, our personal lives will be richer and the larger world will be improved. When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou (4 April, 1928 – 28 May, 2014), born Marguerite Annie Johnson, was an African-American poet, memoirist, actress, director, producer, writer, singer, dancer, and civil rights activist. Her compassion, courage, and deep spirituality influenced her vast body of work and public life. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, and Stamps, Arkansas, Angelou confronted racial discrimination and personal trauma. These experiences served as the basis for her seminal work, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," reflecting her resilient spirit and setting the stage for her impactful roles in literature, cinema, and activism.

Angelou's kindness and empathy were defining traits, evident in her personal interactions and her writing. She held a strong belief in the transformative power of words, using her literary prowess to explore themes of love, kindness, and human fellowship, advocating the role of compassion in healing societal fractures. A spiritual person, Angelou drew on diverse traditions, encompassing African religions, Christianity, and Eastern philosophies. This broad spiritual perspective underpinned her sense of human interconnectedness and significantly influenced her creative output.

Her creativity, which spanned film directing, screenplay writing, autobiographical writing, poetry, essays, and music, addressed social, personal, and spiritual themes with a distinctive blend of honesty and empathy. Through life's hardships, Angelou retained a spirit of gratitude, a trait she imparted as a mentor to younger generations of artists and writers. Despite her passing in 2014, Angelou's legacy of courage, compassion, creativity, and spirituality continues to inspire, offering insight and comfort to countless individuals worldwide.

(1928-2014) Humanism, Arts and Sciences

Angelou, Maya. Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now. Random House, 1993.

Maya Angelou

Theme: Gratefulness

About This Maya Angelou Quotation [Commentary]

Maya Angelou opens with a practical shift: “If we change the way we think of charity, our personal lives will be richer and the larger world will be improved.” She places the change in “the way we think,” and then names its reach—first “our personal lives,” then “the larger world.” Her sequence keeps charity grounded in everyday life, while also pointing to its public effect.

She then focuses the practice: “When we give cheerfully.” “Cheerfully” matters because it describes the spirit of the gift, not just the act. Giving with a good heart keeps charity from becoming a burden or a performance. In the theme of Gratitude, this kind of giving is not stiff or reluctant; it is freely offered.

Maya Angelou pairs giving with receiving: “and accept gratefully.” To “accept gratefully” is to receive with respect and attention, letting what is offered be received as a gift. That grateful receiving honors the giver, and it also allows the receiver to stand in dignity. When we “give cheerfully and accept gratefully,” she ends with the shared result: “everyone is blessed.”

Maya Angelou’s friendship with Oprah Winfrey and Brené Brown

Maya Angelou’s friendship with Oprah Winfrey and Brené Brown was one of warmth and enduring mutual admiration. Oprah, who considered Angelou as her mentor, and Brown, who frequently found inspiration in Angelou’s work, both cherished the wisdom and compassion Angelou embodied. One touching moment was when Brown first met Angelou at Oprah’s studio. Reflecting on this meeting, Brown shared: “When Maya walked into the room, everything stopped. She embodied that rare combination of fierce courage and complete presence. Her words, ‘I shall not be moved,’ echoed in my mind and resonated in my heart.” This shared recognition and reverence defined the deep connection between Angelou, Winfrey, and Brown—a bond characterized by shared values, love, and the power of language.

Additional Maya Angelou Quotes

“Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.”

Maya Angelou [Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer].

“Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.”

—Maya Angelou [As quoted in USA Today (5 March 1988)].

“You can’t use up creativity,” she stresses. “The more you use, the more you have. It is our shame and our loss when we discourage people from being creative. We set apart those people who should not be set apart, people whom we assume don’t have a so-called artistic temperament, and that is stupid.”

—Maya Angelou, 1982, Bell Telephone Magazine, Volume 61, Number 1, Creativity: It’s the Thought that Counts by Mary Ardito, p. 32 [Also as quoted by Jeffrey M. Elliot [Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989)].

“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.”

—Maya Angelou [I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings].

“Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.”

—Maya Angelou [I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings].

“The caged bird sings with a fearful trill,
of things unknown, but longed for still,
and his tune is heard on the distant hill,
for the caged bird sings of freedom.”

—Maya Angelou [I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings].

Everyone Is Blessed

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