Susan L. Taylor
Seeds of faith are always within us; sometimes it takes a crisis to nourish and encourage their growth.Collection: Faith
Historically, black women have suffered tremendously, but today's black women are the triumph. We have choices, and that's what freedom is all about: having the power to choose.Collection: Freedom
We must learn how to live in the space of inner peace in our everyday lives. This takes consistent, conscious effort because I know so many black women are hurting and sad, and we don't easily express our heartache or show our wounds.Collection: Sad
Thoughts have power; thoughts are energy. And you can make your world or break it by your own thinking.Collection: Power
We don't have an eternity to realize our dreams, only the time we are here.Collection: Dreams
We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly - spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order.Collection: Alone
Stress and worry, they solve nothing. What they do is block creativity. You are not even able to think about the solutions. Every problem has a solution.
Use missteps as stepping stones to deeper understanding and greater achievement.
Occasionally, I have to think like myself to remember where I put something.
What we still haven't done is really learned and embraced our history. When we do that, we'll no longer be doubtful and fearful that we are weak and incomplete.
We have to get up, and we have to move our bodies. We need to move! There is no way to be healthy or happy - no way - without having some kind of exercise regimen.
We have to fill our hearts with gratitude. Gratitude makes everything that we have more than enough.
There's a lot of rhetoric out here, a lot of talk about giving young people opportunity. Just looking so deeply into the RFK Children's Action Corps, I can see that they are really, really living that mandate.
I don't care how much you know, how many books you read, how you much you study and, you know, how educated you are, you're still going to struggle. Life is challenging.
I write about spirituality not so we get strong from within and achieve some state of nirvana and then distance ourselves from the real world. I write about it so we can feel empowered to doing the critical work that this generation of black women are charged with doing.
We don't have time to waste. Our communities are crumbling; our children are under siege. Failing schools and a for-profit prison-industrial complex are sucking the life out of black homes and communities. We are not going down like this!
It's hunger. It's homelessness, often. It's underfunded, under-resourced schools. It's abuse beyond the chilling. It's having overwhelmed parents and caregivers. Those are the things that young people are struggling with beyond our view.
Parents really just need support and not to be blamed and not to have fingers pointed at them.
We will never finish everything on our to-do lists. It's not possible, and that is life!
When I joined 'Essence,' I was a young, single mother. I was 24. I hadn't gone to college. I wasn't making any money at 'Essence' - what was it, $500 a month - and I was struggling. So I was always looking down the road, always hoping for a better, you know, tomorrow.
We live in an abundant universe. Everything we need to take care of ourselves, those things are all around us. Don't focus on that economy. Don't believe that there's not enough for you.
Don't identify yourself with labels and brands and have to buy every cute thing you see. Invest in the things that will grow in equity.
We need a new order of ministers to stand in pulpits. It's not enough to sing and praise God in worship services. Any religion that doesn't encourage us to work together to end the needless suffering all around us is godless.
We women feel we are here to serve. That's the mistake we make. We may have children, husbands, lovers, bills, responsibility. Those things don't own us, but too often we let them.
The things I need from my husband and he needs from me are minimal - respect, support when needed, kindness, love.
In every crisis there is a message. Crises are nature's way of forcing change - breaking down old structures, shaking loose negative habits so that something new and better can take their place.Collection: Inspirational
As we rise to meet the challenges that are a natural part of living, we awaken to our many undiscovered gifts, to our inner power and our purpose.Collection: Challenges
When you pray, remember that you are not praying to a distant God, but to the God that dwells within you. Don't just speak the words; feel what they mean in your life. Don't pray from your lips, but from your heart. Your prayers aren't for God, they are for you, to remind you of the presence of the Holy Spirit within you. When you say "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done," remember that you are loved and protected. God has planned greater things for us than we can imagine. The more we maintain an awareness of God's unchanging love, the safer and more at home we will feel in the world.Collection: Prayer
We are forever looking outside ourselves, seeking approval and striving to impress others. But living to please others is a poor substitute for self-love, for no matter how family and friends may adore us, they can never satisfy our visceral need to love and honor ourselves.Collection: Self
Whatever we believe about ourselves and our ability comes true for us.Collection: Inspirational
The more we nourish our internal world, the more powerful we grow in the external world.Collection: Powerful
Remember, life is for living and learning. So listen to your life and the lessons it offers. What choices must you make this day to help you move forward? Make your list of the things you can do right now to create what you want and begin to do the work. You can say yes to happiness, wholeness, and prosperity. You can live fully and creatively. You can claim your power to choose. Why not claim it now?Collection: Life
Our greatest problems in life come not so much from the situations we confront as from our doubts about our ability to handle them.Collection: Doubt
There are no meaningless experiences.Collection: Meaningless
Take the reins of your life in your hands every day. Get up and put a smile on your face, and feel grateful for this gift in your life.Collection: Life
Self-love is the starting point for everything.Collection: Love Is
Love is the life spring of our existence. The more love you give, the happier you feel and the more love you will have within you to give.Collection: Spring
The path to realizing our dreams is never smooth. Invariably we encounter bends, turns, detours, and roadblocks. Sometimes our frustrations make us want to give up the journey, but frustrations signal the need to pause for introspection and redirection. Frustrations are promptings from God to search our souls even more deeply to find our power and purpose, and to live it. Frustrations tell us that our thoughts and actions are not yet in harmony with our desires.Collection: Dream
Each moment is magical, precious and complete and will never exist again. We forget that now is the moment we are in, that the next one isn't guaranteed. And if we are blessed with another moment, any joy, creativity or wisdom it brings will ensue from the way we live in the present one.Collection: Blessed
God makes no mistakes. In all our trials and dramas there are lessons. Life is not a playground but a classroom. Our journey through life provides the course work and the tests needed for our education and development.Collection: Mistake
If we want sincere harmony, peace and joy in our lives, we can have them, but we must be willing to do the work. We must make maintaining an awareness of our spiritual natures first in our lives. Our inner world is the architect of our external world. We don't lose faith in the goodness of life because we become angry and depressed. We become angry and depressed because we lose faith in the goodness of life.Collection: Spiritual
We each have a finite number of heartbeats, a finite amount of time. But we have enough heartbeats and enough time to do what is important.Collection: Time
In every crisis there is a message.Collection: African American
Acceptance is what we wish for ourselves and often deny others.Collection: Appreciation
Self-hate is a form of mental slavery that results in poverty, ignorance, and crime.Collection: Hate
We mustn't reserve communing with God just for morning and evening prayers, or for weekly worship service, or for when we feel burdened. The goal is to realize that every moment of our lives is a meditation. Allow yourself to marvel at the wonder of God's work all around us. Throughout your day, let the sun, a tree, a piece of fruit remind you that everything you could ever want has been provided and can be found right here on earth.Collection: God
Women are holding up the world. We're taking care our children and, very often, our parents and sometimes our grandparents.Collection: Children
Women work overtime, do double triple duty, juggle ten balls at once -- children, careers, husbands, schoolwork, housework, church work, and more work -- and when one of the balls drops, we think something is wrong with us.Collection: Husband
When you commit yourself to living love, you feel at peace with yourself because you are at harmony with the flow of life. Viewing life from the highest perspective, you feel confident and secure. You realize that no matter how things may appear, you are loved and protected. You know you are one with God, and you bring your peace with you wherever you go. You're not looking for love, but for opportunities to love.Collection: Love
Any joy, creativity or wisdom our next moment brings will ensue from the way we live our present one.Collection: Creativity