Quote Of The Day By Maya Angelou: 'When I Was Younger, I Thought My Grandmother Was...

Maya Angelou was an activist, performer, and renowned author, whose work has inspired generation after generation. Born in 1928, she faced many struggles throughout her childhood. Through it all, though, she was passionate about writing. Angelou's parents had a deeply troubled relationship, followed by divorce, which led her to live with her grandmother on and off  growing up. Throughout and after high school, Angelou worked hard at odd jobs to support herself and her son, whom she had just after graduation. In the '50s, Angelou worked professionally as a singer and dancer, even selling her own albums. 

Her famous autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" was published in 1969 and received a National Book Award nod. She would go on to write six more autobiographies, as well as essays and collections of poetry. Her 1971 poetry volume, "Just Give me a Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie," was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and she won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for "On the Pulse of the Morning." The following year, her screenplay, "Georgia, Georgia," made her the first Black woman whose screenplay was produced as a film. Among many other prestigious honors, she earned the National Medal of Arts in 2000 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010. And that's how Angelou's revelation about her childhood gave us today's quote of the day.

"When I was younger, I thought my grandmother was probably God and she just wouldn't tell anybody!" Maya Angelou revealed this during an interview with Oprah Winfrey for the December 2000 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine (via Oprah.com). The quote takes us back to a time of innocence in Angelou's life when she believed her grandmother was all powerful and immortal, only to realize that neither she, nor anyone else, truly is.

This quote from Maya Angelou captures something special about the way children often think that most of us can relate to. Kids are usually protected by those around them, and they are sheltered from many of the realities of being a human. In her interview with Oprah Winfrey, Angelou explained how her life changed when her grandmother, who she thought of as God, died. "...I realized that even if I had millions of dollars, I couldn't find her anywhere on earth. And my next thought was that I would die," she recalled. Angelou's childhood belief showed how safe and protected she felt when her grandmother was around. Yet, there's an innate pain hidden in the quote, as it hints at what is sure to come. Angelou called the thoughts about mortality that followed her grandmother's death "one of the most important crossroads in my life..."

For those of us who were lucky enough to be sheltered from much of reality as a child, growing up means coming to grips with the painful, terrifying, and disappointing realities of life. Yet, Angelou's words remind us these realizations don't have to be all negative. They can also lead us to a happy mental space. "I'm going to die. So why can't I do everything?" was Angelou's conclusion about what she learned. And this is something worth considering whenever the realities of the world get too heavy.

• "But love is so much bigger and deeper and wider and broader than that."
• "I think that we're in the presence of courage when we see a person during cruel times being kind."
• "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."
• "When someone shows you who they are believe them the first time."
• "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."