It is hard. It's hard changing your life. It's hard picking up the pieces and starting all over again. It's hard getting your mind together after you have gone through a life shaking experience (being a primary caregiver for someone; hearing a diagnosis you didn't want; starting over again from a loss of any kind; being alone in a new place; wanting a friend.) But you can do hard. You can weather the storm. You will come through this.

Affirm to yourself every day ~ several times a day. No matter how hard it gets...I am going to make it!! Stand up and look yourself in the eyes..and say "I can do hard!!" Exercise, pray, seek solitude, allow for periods of sadness...but know that you will get through this. Keep the faith; continue to work; and expect to make it through. You may not be able to change your circumstances or situation...but you can change yourself! Hold on..You can do hard! You have GREATNESS within you!!

- - Les Brown

Be bold! In order to receive much you must risk much. Do not worry about what your critics say. Most of them wish they were you anyway. Think “bigger.” Be unreasonable! Abandon logic. Forget about being rational! If your dream is unrealistic, go for it! We all know today, anything is possible.

Success is a journey of the bold and courageous! You deserve to be successful. You work hard and you know that a big dream requires a big sacrifice. Finish what you start. Completion is success.

Confront your doubts as they arise! Doubts are limiting decisions and unconscious beliefs that you formed long ago. Your unconscious mind uses them to keep you safe, but those thoughts no longer serve you. What is your truth today? You have more skill, you have more experience and you have more guts than ever before. That is your truth today. Toss those doubts in the air and smash ‘em over the net! Game. Set. Match.

- - Les Brown

"The person who is a master in the art of living makes little distinction between their work and their play, their labor and their leisure, their mind and their body, their education and their recreation, their love and their religion. They hardly know which is which. They simply pursue their vision of excellence and grace in whatever they do, leaving others to decide whether they are working or playing. To them, they are always doing both."

- - Zen Buddhist text

The U.S. Postal Service just unveiled the Maya Angelou Forever Stamp image. Along with the preview image comes the announcement that the First-Day-of-Issue stamp dedication ceremony, which will be free and open to the public, with limited seating, will take place on April 7th at 11:00 a.m. in Washington, D.C., at the Warner Theater.

The imagery on the stamp comes from Atlanta-based artist Ross Rossin’s 2013 48” x 48” oil-on-canvas portrait of Angelou. Rossin says of his work, “I was compelled by the challenge to portray her forgiving smile and her aura of unconditional love and understanding that comes across when having a conversation with her.”

“Because of the routines we follow, we often forget that life is an ongoing adventure. . . Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art: to bring all our energies to each encounter, to remain flexible enough to notice and admit when what we expected to happen did not happen. We need to remember that we are created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed.”
- -  Maya Angelou