Live Your Life On Purpose: Inspiration: Still I Rise

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inspiration

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou [poetry] You may write me

down in

history With your bitter,

twisted

lies, You may trod me

in the very dirt But still, like

dust, I’ll rise. Does my

sassiness

upset you? Why are you beset

with gloom? ‘Cause I walk like

I’ve got oil wells

Pumping in my

living room. Just like moons

and like suns, With the

certanity of tides, Just like hopes

springing high, Still I’ll rise. Did

you want

to see me broken? Bowed head and

lowered eyes? Shoulders

falling

down like teardrops, Weakened

by my soulful cries? Does my haughtiness

offend you? Don’t you take

it awful hard ‘Cause I laugh like I’ve

got gold mines Diggin’ in my

own backyard. You may shoot me

with your

words, You may cut

me with your eyes, You may kill me with

your

hatefulness, But still, like

air, I’ll rise. Does my

sexiness upset you? Does it come

as a surprise, That I dance like

I’ve got diamonds, At the

meeting

of my thighs? Out of

the huts of history’s

shame I rise, Up from a past that’s

rooted i pain

I rise. I’m a black ocean,

leaping and wide, Welling

and swelling I bear

in the tide. Leaving

behind nights of

terror and fear, I rise. Into a

daybreak that’s

wondrously

clear, I rise. Bringing

the gifts that

my

ancestors gave, I am the

dreamand the

hope of the

slaves. I rise, I rise, I rise."

Egyptian Goddess-Neith

Egyptian Goddess-Neith: "Neith Great Goddess. Cult Center: Sais in the western Delta Attributes: Neith was

a goddess of the hunt.

She may have

also been

a war

goddess. Her worship dates

from pre dynastic history.

In early times she was called 'mother of

the gods' and

'Great Goddess'. She was

considered the guardian

of men and gods. Later, Neith was seen

as a

protector of the

dead, she is often seen standing with

Nephthys at the head of coffins.

Or assisting

Isis, Nephthys, and Serqet to

guard the Canopic jars. As

'Opener of the Ways', she was a guide

in the underworld, a female Anubis. In

the Eighteenth

Dynasty she took on

the

attributes of Hathor,

as a protector of

women. As a creative deity she was said to be

the wife of Khnum at Elephantine. She

was appealed to for her wisdom

as an arbitrator during the great quarrel

of Horus and Seth. Neith assumed the role

of state deity during the

Twenty-sixth Dynasty, when

the kings of Sais repeled the invading

Assyrians and reunited

Egypt. This period lasted

for about a century and a

half and the tendency

in art and religion was

to try to regain

the glories

of the past. This was

a suitable time for

the worship of an ancient goddess. Representation:

Neith was pictured as a woman

wearing the red crown of Lower

Egypt, holding a

bow and crossed arrows. Her

cult sign was a shield and crossed arrows.

Occasionally she was

represented as the

great cow, mother of Ra. Relations: Varied with

time period. Mother of Sobek,

Isis, Horus and Osiris.

Or mother of Ra. The pharaoh

Nectanebo II of the

Twenty-sixth Dynasty,

claimed her as his Mother.

Wife of Khnum."