An Evening with Maya Angelou

UPDATE: Go to my friend Christy's blog to see her thoughts on the event.
Last night I had the privilege of enjoying a lecture given by Maya Angelou. Her message was inspiring and her stories, songs and poems were entertaining. What made the evening even better was attending it with my good friend and some of her students.

Angelou challenged the audience to "be a rainbow in someone's clouds" and to remember and appreciate those that have been rainbows in our clouds. I'm thankful for the opportunity to have attended what I would call a great cultural event. And, I only had to travel 15 minutes to the campus of West Texas A&M University in Canyon to do it. The Panhandle offers numerous cultural opportunities if we'd just take the time to seek them out. (I'm attending CATS on Sunday--yay!)

An Explanation

I found this poem today. It sort of explains why my house is in the condition it is in.

Song for a Fifth Child
by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.


Although I'm not rocking any babies anymore (I tried to rock Tryce today, he informed me he was too big.) I thought this was a neat poem.