Maya Angelou's SuperSoul Sunday - Part 2

continues with my greatest spiritual teacher changing for me yes diamond the legendary author thinker poet and my personal mentor dr. Maya Angelou I have to say I don't believe anybody on earth has taught me more than my Angela I was crying hysterically and you said stop it right now today she's back with even more of her wisdom what do you think is the best piece of advice you'd give it hmm she reveals how her tough but tender-hearted mother transformed her life even at 16 when you became pregnant yeah she did not shame you and I gotta say this nobody has better insight and perspective about aging brilliantly what can you say about the eighties oh man I'd do it if you can plus the aha moment that moves Maya to tears it still humbles me and I'm amazed at it get ready for life lessons and to be inspired as only Maya Angelou can deliver thank God that's a tweet part 2 of my heart-to-heart conversation with the phenomenal Maya Angelou starts now I wanted a place for people to go every Sunday to wake up thought-provoking oh you couldn't have said that better than i opening and inspiring this is my favorite thing to talk about this will lift you right on up its food for your soul every single Sunday this is super soul Sunday last time my Angelo and I reminisced about some of the most meaningful moments of her extraordinary journey would you say that you've had a life filled with talk about pizzazz we marveled at Maya in this 1957 Calypso showstopper and she gave us new insight into boundless accomplishments in her remarkable life what were you thinking when the president placed that medal around her neck I was so filled that when I would take him out of that room I saw ingratitude she also spoke candidly and lovingly about her mother Vivian Baxter a charismatic fierce dynamo of a woman I wouldn't mess with Vivian Baxter no mess with her never their deep spiritual connection is the catalyst for Maya's latest book to call mom and me and mom at 85 my Angelou is now a great-grandmother and is still taking the world by storm in addition to her writing and full schedule of speaking engagements she remained ever irrelevant hip and up to date with her active and enlightening presence on Twitter I'm one of legions of readers who looked at Maya Angelou for comforting words for courage we soaked up her wisdom we marvel at her stamina and bask in the pure contagious joy she takes in living 82 is hot 82 is fabulous I thought that the sixties were good I thought the sixties where that hottest ever and then I got into the seventies what what I loved the 70s and I thought well the eight is is gonna be slowing down not I'm writing music I'm writing I'm working and I'm talking to you oh yeah it's eighties trying to make it try to make it to 80 it's true absolutely now as we sit here there are 85 yes ma'am yes as we're 85 what can you say about the 80s oh man I'd do it if you can do it if you have a choice choose the ad oh my goodness I mean it if you've been caring for yourself you know my moderation in all things yes and even moderation in moderation don't get too much moderation don't even get too much moderation moderation in moderation that's right yes but when you get into your abs and you find that you're still looking and kind of all right and and people still say have no lol oh you think I'm glad I got this far yes in the May issue of O Magazine we talk about aging brilliantly tell me what you've learned yourself about the aging book you know because I think I learned this from you and what a wonderful mentor you have been for me for aging with grace and appreciation and heart and just embracing it yeah and I see so many women around me who even as early as our 40s and some even in their 30s they're they're trying to you know Botox themselves and you know change themselves and fighting it just fighting it fighting it all the way and I always look at it as just as you were saying my god whatever age I think about the people who didn't make it as I said here at 59 I think about all the people who didn't make it to 59 and so were you ever anxious about it were you ever oh I can't believe I'm 30 40 I can't believe I'm 50 I can't remember ever being anxious about it even when I was very young I mean I've always wanted to to reach that other age who as far as I can remember I thought that if I could live to be 20 yes you know if it's gonna be really wonderful then 25 and and then 30 oh my goodness that was gonna it was a knock out every every age I've been grateful I talked to you about this years ago yes is being grateful yes grateful just constantly get up in the morning thank you lord yes thank you for this day thank you for the light coming through that window thank you thank you that I'm breathing thank you thank you for everything thank you for the phone call that told me that I had the job thank you even for the phone call that told me I'm not wanted anymore thank you because I know you have something better for me 9s yeah thank you yeah one of my life seminal moments I was had to had the farm in Indiana you were and I was in the bathroom because there are people at the house and I closed the door and I was sitting on the toilet seat and on the bathroom phone calling you and I was crying hysterically about something I don't remember it was and you said you know I was calling for your open empathetic loving embrace and you said stop it I said stop it right now I want you to say thank you and I would say but you didn't hear me I didn't hear what I said and you said no I want to say it I want to hear you say it that I would thank you well as a thank you for it and you said because you know God has put a rainbow in the clouds yes it yeah like changing for me yes Diamond yes darlin so when whatever it is hits thank you thank you because I know something better is on the road me so you fired me good on you and very good on me because what I'm going to get darling you would long for darling yes darling so where did you get that where did you know that out from a long way from my grandmother my father's mother who raised me and from Vivian Baxter Maya describes her mother Vivian as a dynamic woman a Spitfire with a larger than life presence but she was someone Maya didn't really get to know until her teens unable to raise two young children on her own Vivian Baxter had sent Maya and her brother Bailey to live with their grandmother in rural Arkansas when Maya turned 13 she rejoined her mother in San Francisco and while it took some time for them to get to know each other it was obvious there was a lot of love between Maya and the woman she called Lady Vivian Baxter JC she loved me yes and and encouraged me to develop courage in Stockton California where she lived and died yes there's a park I saw named for her yes because she was that kind to everybody whites blacks spanish-speaking Native American Asian she was that time and so the newest Park in Stockton California it's called lady Baxter I like that until that's on one end of town and a library on the other end of town is the Maya Angelou it's amazing because the library it was named for me because of Vivian Baxter your mother paved that way guys you pay that way we're talking about last night every time I dare to do a good thing I'm doing it in the name of my mother coming up Maya says if you need healing there's one thing that's guaranteed to help love does their loved us love liberate and the turning point that gave Maya what she calls the most important virtue courage she never ever made me feel that I had done the wrong I know and even at 16 when he became pregnant yeah she did not shame me not at all super soul Sunday we'll be back in a moment [Music] [Applause] [Music] in our latest memoir my Angelou says the lessons from her mother Vivian Baxter are highlighted in her memory like Technicolor stars in a midnight sky my mother's gifts of courage to me we're both large and small the latter are woven so subtly into the fabric of my psyche that I can hardly distinguish where she stops and I began you say that this book has been written to examine some of the ways that love heals and helps a person to climb to impossible heights and rise from immeasurable deaths it's true yes it's true love does their love does that love liberates and love from a parent and I mean from a mother our Father love not sentimentality not mush but true love now that gives you enough courage that you can say to somebody don't do that baby and the person will know you're not preaching yes teaching yes my Angelou developed an even deeper connection to her mother when she became pregnant at 16 she calls the birth of her only child her sungai the greatest blessing of her life when Maya told Vivian Baxter she was gonna have a baby her mother didn't get angry instead she welcomed the baby boy into their lives even guiding the young mother as she struck out on her own when guy was only two months old he moved out of the house and I love this story about where your mother said to you as you were leaving he says alright you go but remember this when you cross my doorstep you have already been raised yes with what you've learned from your grandmother and Arkansas and what you've learned from me you know the difference between right and wrong do right and don't let anybody raise you from the way you've been raised no you will always have to make adjustments in love relationships and friends in society and work but don't let anybody change your mind and then remember this you can always come home she did oh she did and she whenever I'd go home the world would threw me flat on my face with this little baby I'm trying to raise and work and sing songs and dance and I would go home to Vivienne Baxter she would act as if it the best thing that has ever happened she's called her friend's girl you can't bet you can't believe it the baby is home I'm gonna cook this for her she loves Spanish rice I mean they cook pepper listen don't try to come over I'm gonna have her to myself at least three or four hours then you can come up she never ever made me feel that I had done the wrong thing I know him even at 16 when you became pregnant yeah she did not shame you she said we're gonna have this beautiful baby and she asked me she said do you know who the father is I said yes I only had sex with him one time but but then he's the only one she said all right do you love him I said no she said asked me does he love you I said no she said we're not gonna ruin 3d lives we're gonna have a beautiful baby Wow yes she did and she loved my son yes she was a knockout Vivian back she was a knockout tell me this you've been my greatest teacher who's been your greatest teacher probably my grandmother came out there really mm-hmm your greatest teacher my greatest teachers I watched grandmother himself and I'm not watch Vivian Baxter Vivian Baxter with this incredible anger whenever anybody tried to do her down this same woman was so kind I never in my life she was very pretty she never laughed at anybody ever I like that in her uh-huh because she had everything she had money she had beauty and help and she never laughed at anybody and you didn't think of yourself as a pretty girl oh no I wasn't a pretty girl there were pretty girls who had long hair fair skin and yeah and I was so tall I was 6 foot 15 so how did you learn to love yourself at that time well Bailey loved me my grandmother loved me and my mother loved because another book that you wrote that it's a poem nobody makes it alone and then nobody but nobody makes somebody and that's how love heals the love of the family the love of one person can heal so it heals the scars left a wound left by larger society a massive powerful society coming up the moment that changed Maya's life it still humbles me an amazed at it I'm grateful for it super-soul is I want to know about the greatest teachers in your lives and the lessons that inspired you tweet me using hashtag love Maya or post on Facebook there's an African Americans on 19th century which is so great it says when it looked like the song was not shiny anymore God put a rainbow in the clouds matter and I've had so many rainbows in my crowds I had a lot of clouds but I have had so many rainbows and the thing to do it seems to me it's to prepare yourself so that you can be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud somebody who may not look like you may not call God the same name you call God if they call got it all you see and may not eat the same dishes prepared the way you do may not dance your dances or speak your language but be a blessing to somebody that's what I think super soul Sunday we'll be back in a moment [Music] what really matters now is love I mean that condition and the human spirit so profound that it allows us to rise strength love courage love kindness love that is really what matters there has always been evil and there will always be evil but there has always been good and there is good now you say words are things and that they're so powerful so what words do you turn to for comfort no and again see I don't mean I think I think love is that condition and the human spirit so profound that it allows us to forgive and it may be the energy which keeps the stars in the firmament yes I'm not sure it may be the energy which keeps the blood running smoothly through our veins I'm not sure but it's something beyond the explanation it can be used for anything you can explain any good thing you can explain absolutely yes man where do you go for solace for comfort are there books that you read or when Maya Angelou needs comforting yeah well what do you mean I'm a student of unity and there's a book called church unity church Maya first discovered the unity church in her 20s after her voice coach and mentor Fred Wilkerson invited her to a service there founded in 1889 unity is a Christian movement that emphasizes affirmative prayer and education as a path to spirituality I took a course in unity about two years ago online not to become a member a minister but just to understand deeply there's a book called lessons in truth Wow and in the book there's a line which is God loves me and when I came to read it to my then mentor Frederick Wilkerson the late Frederick Wilson I read God loves me and he said read it again and I said God loves me he said read it again or read it again and finally I said God loves me it still humbles me that this force which made leaves and flees and and stars and rivers and and you jumps me me Maya Angelou it's amazing I can do anything and do it well any good thing I can do it that's why I'm Who I am yes because God loves me and I'm amazed at it I'm grateful for it do you feel carried by the ancestors as I do do you feel carried by absolutely yeah when you said when we talked last week about but your crown has been paid for yeah put it on your head and yet wear it yes yeah do you feel yes do you feel absolutely your grandmother and her mother is a great great been born a slave in bornus a-- do you feel that you're caring for absolutely and I'm responsible to them Maya has spoken often about that responsibility and listen to this from 2003 imagine it just imagine any of us if we could really think about great grandfathers and grandmothers and if put them right in front of us today and say here you are are you pleased with what I'm doing with my life am I making you proud am i doing all you would like me to be doing because a person could save you're the reason why I came over here on that boat you're the reason I stood on Mars and block usually I stuck it so that you could exist suddenly life itself is richer so wherever I am I stand on the stage in front of 10,000 people my great grandmother stands there with me mm-hmm that's the line in the poem grandmother is a general one of my favorites I come as one and I stand oh my gosh have I used that line for myself internally on many occasions because that's who you are I recited that to myself many times I come as one but I stand as 10,000 that's it yeah girl the force of that it's it wasn't man know that none of us are alone no ever cuz you've been paid for already thank the Lord coming up we all know she's full of life lessons but which one is Maya Angelo's favorite everybody who quotes you and I vote you and then they quote me to you and all what do you think is the best piece of advice you'd give it well hmm Oh Maya's enter when super soul Sunday returns plus what you our super Soler's want to say to Maya Angelou we'll be back in a moment [Music] you know I love sharing Maya's wisdom on the Oprah show over all these years and of all the lessons I've learned in my life this one's at the very top of my Mya list when people show you who they are believe them yes absolutely that person says to you I'm selfish or I'm mean or I am unkind or I'm crazy I'm good believe them they know themselves much better than you do in 2000 when you were 72 I interviewed you for the magazine and I asked you if you considered yourself wise and at the time you answered well I'm in route that's true and how would you answer that now I mean route you still long but I'm still in rural I don't know when I know enough I know I know a lot and I'm grateful for that and now I know enough to try to to live what I know now that's a lot well that's a lot but I still don't have it Oh what do you think that you Maya Angelou everybody who quotes you and I quote you and then they quote me do you and all what do you think is the best piece of advice you've given well hmm well I'm thinking that the best advice I've ever given I hope was that which I gave to my son and he was growing up he said I don't have any trends how can I get some friends and although I was very young I told him two things I told him in order to get a friend you have to be a friend be ready to be a friend and also I'd told him there's a place in you that you must keep inviolate you must keep it pristine clean so that nobody has a right to curse you up treat you badly nobody no mother father no wife no husband no nobody because that may be the place you go to when you meet God you have to have a page but did you say stop it back up not even must not know no absolutely and that's one I told you 25 years ago yes say no when it's no yeah say so back it up because that place has to remain clean and clear and that has to be a place within you yes ma'am yeah that is the best advice I know everybody who's watching is gonna say when people show you who they are believe them that's also very good it is good man yeah but nothing tops having the place inside you're sorry that nobody else nobody has right to invade no yes and when the when the person comes with rude language to you are invasive language to you you have to be able to say back up not me you don't I'm don't you know I'm a child of God what is the best piece of advice you've ever gotten I guess the greatest advice is to forgive hmm I don't anoint it with anything I just forgive it but don't we forgive I've tried to let people know on the show as you have taught me over the years that when you forgive somebody doesn't mean you want to sit down and invite them to your no no no no indeed not I just mean I'm finished with you you done go away yes yes you go away now I don't I don't say go away and harm somebody else but I do have to protect myself it looks like a ninny if I ask somebody else to protect me and I'm not willing to protect myself yeah that's one of the great lessons that you've taught me to have you got to be willing to take care of this first yes ma'am then you have enough to give yeah coming up we're going soul to soul with my Angela dr. Angela what is your definition of God first we asked you our super Soler's how Maya has touched your lives and here's what a few of you had to say I fell in love with words after reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and from that moment I was introduced to my best friend poetry dr. Angelou you showed me how capable I really am through well spoken words and a fearless life you taught me possibility you taught me how to dream you pushed me to blaze new paths for myself and constantly challenged my own levels of comfort you made me want to tell a story the way that you did you made me want to have a story to tell and I do dear dr. Maya Angelou we are all your extended family your daughters and sons and you are gifted literary mother with peace and blessings NOLA what is Maya meant to you tweet me using the hashtag love Maya or post on our Facebook page super soul Sunday we'll be right back dr. Angela what is your definition of God oh if I could say if I was asked say it in your a definition of God in one word it would be all a ll I love that there is no place that God is not no place in the prison in the choir loft on my knees got it right there Todd it's all are there many ways to get to him I think so as many many ways as there are absolutely like the way the highways that go to Rome but all roads lead to God yes what do you believe happens when you die oh and go back to all you go back to all yes I'm in all right now I just go back there huh go back to all yeah it's another trend it's just another way of being in all yes and it's so interesting because you're the first person that said to me in a way I really got that there are as many levels you said that everybody thinks is there's just one way there's not just one gate there's many gates as there are people there any gates are people and then dr. Evan Alexander's book and you know them yeah Ruth of heaven he talks about all of the different multi-level yeah yeah I love that book by the way well and then to find and to see him on super-soul yes not my socks are amazing what do you call the soul what is it what is the soul mm-hmm the soul is the spirit which longs for all and that spirit then uses itself to create the blues and and gospel music and pop music and hip-hop it's that spirit that longs that says let me say something which will help me lead me to all whether the poetry is the poetry of Nikki Giovanni Sonia Sanchez or SH William Shakespeare or Maya Angelou Oh Eugene Redmond the poetry I write it so I can get closer to all let me tell so much truth not facts because facts can obscure the truth you tell so many fact the places where the people who times when the reasons why bla bla bla never getting to the truth uh-huh so I want to tell the truth in my work right and it will help me lead me closer to our and is do you see I remember Rainn Wilson was on super soul Sunday and he said that art is another form of Prayer of course yeah you see that exactly yes and that's why you trying your best to say the right thing the true thing the good thing because you're an artist and you're using God itself they help you to get to God oh yes how do you define spirituality versus religion well my legend is like a map you know it can it can help you to see how to get where you want to go only does it show you how to get there it's a mere man yeah and spirituality for you memes Oh surrender I surrender after all coming up I knew Maya would have a great response to this question what does Prayer mean to you think oh I know you a praying woman I'm afraid you're praying woman plus my Angela's profound words that inspired a nation lift up your eyes upon this day breaking for you give birth again to the dream well when you wrote it I want to know appear from your mouth why you know the Caged Bird Sings the Caged Bird Sings because it must it must are dying it may be it must am dying I don't know but it must sing sometimes the melody arrived at in the cage is much more fetching much more appealing much more profound much more poignant then the the melody arrived at by the bird who's on the loose the caged bird sings with a fearful trail it's song is heard on the distant hero for the Caged Bird Sings of freedom and so there is something Universal about that song since all of us are caged in some way or another and so people can hear it and say oh yes Oh Lord let that bird out [Music] super soul Sunday we'll be back in a moment what does prayer mean to you oh I know you a praying woman I'm afraid you're praying woman if I am yeah when you say to me there been times you've said to me I'm praying for you and I'm praying with you I know I'm gonna be alright no I know it's a changes thing yeah and you're connected yes yeah yeah yeah and I thank God for them I know that when I pray something wonderful happens not just to the person a person that for whom I'm praying it but also something wonderful happens to me I'm grateful that I'm heard Oh cuz you know all hears it all where do you feel most at home or at peace with yourself with myself in myself always when I'm in myself that is to say I'm at peace with you I'm at peace with 40 thousand cameras looming around this far I'm at peace in my bus I'm at peace standing in front of her and audience says I did a couple of weeks ago for ten thousand people I'm at peace once I know I'm centered in God I live and move and have my being yes I'm all right jack I'm all right now when I lose it as you do lose it from time to time yes it is human I think it's unfortunate but there we are so faith trembles and skids away and so for that moment I am dangerous and I'm in danger yes but as soon as I make the statement in God I live and move and have my being I'm fine I thank you I'm fine and I use that for a I use that to call myself that is my living mantra yeah for myself that's right yeah we're all difficult to expand and it also good ones in God because when you've used it in good times the owl is pleased because it knows that you know that your good times are because of you yes yeah that's right yeah that's how you use the thing thank you thank you and what do you know for sure my Angelo I know for sure that love saves me and that it is here to save us all wrong I know it says it's a sense it's more close to us than air more more loud to us than hearing oh I know it I know that we can sit in it yes love I mean and you know by that I don't mean much or any our domi romance or sentimentality not know I mean something is so it can raise the dead can raise that yes ma'am it can make a mountain move I know it I haven't done it but I know it as surely as I'm sitting here [Music] well that's what you've given to me alright thank you my darling lovely and annoyed thank you in 1993 President Bill Clinton hand-picked Maya Angelou to read a poem at his first inauguration she was only the second poet in history to receive such an honor the first being Robert Frost in 1961 I can think of no better way to end today's show than with some of Maya's profound words from on the pulse of mourning lift up your faces you have a piercing need for this bright morning dawning for you history despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived but if faced with courage need not be lived again lift up your eyes upon this day breaking for you give birth again to the dream women children men take it into the palms of your hands mold it into the shape of your most private need sculpt it into the image of your most public self lift up your hearts each new hour holds new chances for new beginnings do not be wedded forever to fear yoked eternally to brutishness the horizon leans forward offering you space to place new steps of change here on the pulse of this fine day you may have the courage to look up and out and upon me the rock the river the tree your country no less to Midas than the mendicant no less to you now than the mastodon then here on the pulse of this new day you may have the grace to let up and out and into your sisters eyes and into your brother's face your country and say simply very simply with hope good morning [Applause] good morning Maya I'll see all of you next Sunday all right I'm gonna sit here right here the two of us you alright thank you thank you this is thank the photograph of me and my mom you know in the front of the booth yes send you to me for tweet ability thank you thank you [Music]

Channel: MR.X

Views: 168,010

Keywords: Oprah Gail Winfrey, Sunday, Super, guest, SuperSoul Sunday, Soul, talk show

Id: qTOAvI_yi6A

Length: 41min 42sec (2502 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 20 2020