Maya Angelou: The Inspiration You Need Right Now

For several months, I've been on an emotional rollercoaster. The division, the stereotypes, the isolation, the inhumanity, the violence - it is the worst kind of whiplash, from which there appears to be no rest. Even now, as we mourn innocent lives robbed from a Pittsburgh synagogue and a Kentucky Kroger, contemplate brazen attempts to harm our nation's politicians, and are bombarded with daily community policing gone wrong (seriously, people?), the devolution continues.

Many days, it feels easier to retreat. Personally, I've made the difficult but necessary choice to ground myself in what I fundamentally believe, which is that every human being is infinitely creative and capable of good. Some will never embrace their innate creativity, and I will gladly let them go. But others, at this very moment, are deciding (much like I had to) who they will be in this story.

I wrote this for the people uncomfortable with who we are becoming. Those who believe we are more than the brokenness we see, and who don't want to acquiesce to the hatred plaguing our country and our world.

In Dr. Angelou's book A Letter to My Daughter, she wrote:

"To write about giving to a person who is naturally generous reminds me of a preacher passionately preaching to the already committed choir. I am encouraged to write on because I remember that from time to time, the choir does need to be uplifted and thanked for its commitment. Those voices need to be encouraged to sing again and again, with even more emotion."

So yes, I'm preaching to the choir.

I'm reminding you that your voice matters. I want to encourage you to sing again and again, and with even more emotion. Now is not the time to be silent, to sit back and accept intolerance, discrimination, violence, or hateful rhetoric as the new normal. The tide will not change without deliberate action on our part. Love and tolerance as tools with which to connect across emotional distance must be actively preserved. The poison spreading across America is doing so not because there is no antidote, but because not enough of us are using it. If you've wondered whether you have a role to play, you do. If you've asked yourself whether speaking out or standing up will even matter, it will. There are more people who value love and acceptance and connectedness than not, but too many of us are humming our way through this journey.

Sing, friends. Louder. More often. With more emotion.

It's time.

"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud. Do not complain. Make every effort to change the things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution. And be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity." - Maya Angelou, A Letter to My Daughter

Tara Jaye Frank is a passionate leadership speaker and consultant, a blessed wife, a grateful mother of six children ages twelve to twenty-one, and a firm believer in human potential. She most recently founded #MoreThan: A Movement - a healing movement toward deeper understanding between disconnected people. Join the movement on IG/Twitter @morethanmove, and on Facebook @morethanahealingmovement.