“I am grateful to be have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love because that liberates. Love liberates. It doesn’t just hold. Love liberates.
When my son was born, I was seventeen. My mother had a huge house -fourteen-room house-. At seventeen, I went to her and said: “I’m leaving.”. She asked me: “You’re leaving my house?” and she had live-in help. I said: “Yes. I’ve found a job and I’ve got a room with cooking privileges down the hall and the landlady will be the babysitter. She asked me: “You’re leaving my house?”. I said “Yes, Ma’am,”, “And you’re taking the baby?” I said yes. She said “Alright, remember this: When you step over my door sill, you’ve been raised. You know the difference between right and wrong. Do right. Don’t let anybody raise you and make you change. And remember this. You can always come home.”
I went home every time life slapped me down and made me call it uncle. I went home with my baby. My mother never once acted as: “I told you so,” She said: “Oh, baby’s home! Oh my darling Mother’s gonna cook you something, Mother’s gonna make this for you!” Love. She liberated me to life. She continued to do that.Love. She liberated me to life. She continued to do that.
And when she was in her final sickness i went out to San Francisco and the doctor said she had 3 weeks to live. I asked her “Would you come to North Carolina?” She said yes. She had emphysema and lung cancer. I brought her to my home. She lived for a year and a half ..and when she was finally in extraneous she was on oxygen and fighting cancer for her life and i remembered her liberating me, and i said i hoped i would be able to liberate her. She deserved that from me.She deserved a great daughter and she got one.
So in her last days, i said: “I understand some people need permission to go… as i understand it you may have done what God put you here to do. You were a great worker.You must’ve been a great lover cause a lot of men -and if I’m not wrong maybe a couple of women- risked their lives to love you. You were a piss-poor mother of small children but a you were a great mother of young adults, and if you need permission to go, I liberate you”. And i went back to my house, and something said go back- i was in my pajamas- . I jumped in my car and ran and the nurse said “she just gone”.
You see love liberates. It doesn’t bind. Love says i love you. I love you if you’re in China. I love you if you’re across town. I love you if you’re in Harlem. I love you. I would like to be near you. I would like to have your arms around me. I would like to have your voice in my ear but that’s not possible now. I love you so go. Love liberates it doesn’t hold. That’s ego. Love liberates.”
― Maya Angelou
DOTS & LINES 
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