Prayer and Positive Thinking

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

 

here is an interview in which Maya Angelou tells about her son's accident

and his subsequent recovery. I thought some might find it interesting. Sorry

if it's a bit long.

 

Michael Suesserott

 

---------------------

>From The Feminine Face of God: The Unfolding of the Sacred in Women. (Bantam

Books 1991). By Sherry Ruth Anderson and Patricia Hopkins. The authors

interviewed women all over America to compile a picture of their

relationships with the Divine - including methods of prayer found to be most

helpful.

 

We asked author and poet Maya Angelou about prayer when we spoke with her at

her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she is Professor of

American Studies at Wake Forest University. She was thoughtful for several

moments before replying, "My grandmother had two special songs that she used

to sing all the time, and they are special to me as well." And in a soft,

deep voice she began to sing, " 'My Father is rich in houses and land.

Holds the wealth of the world in His hands. His coffers are filled with

silver and gold, my Father has riches, He has riches untold. I'm a child of

the King.....

 

"If it is true that I am a child of the King," she continued, "I don't

believe my Father expects me to beg. I don't see that. It doesn't follow.

I'm trying to be a loving child of God, a dutiful and, in the best sense,

obedient child. I mean I blow it all the time, but God knows my intention,

my willingness, so I don't think it follows that all this energy, all this

might, needs me to beg. No, I don't believe that. It just doesn't compute.

I believe I am to ask, but not to beg."

 

And "ask" is just what Maya did when she learned that Guy, her only child,

was scheduled to have emergency surgery for complications arising from a

broken neck he had sustained in an accident several years earlier. "I went

directly to San Francisco to be with Guy. As soon as surgery got under way

early the next morning, I drove out to Mission Dolores and I prayed. I had

gone there before in a time of trouble - when I was pregnant with Guy and

needed help to be allowed to enroll late in a summer school program so that

I could finish my high school education. I had prayed before the statue of

Mary then and my prayers were answered. Now I was praying for the life of

my son.

 

"When I got back to the hospital six hours later, Guy's doctor was waiting

for me. 'Success,' he said. It was the word I most wanted to hear. I

immediately called my sister to tell her the good news. Guy woke up shortly

after that. It was late afternoon by then, and everything seemed fine. I

stayed around the hospital talking with him and then went back to my hotel.

At midnight the doctor called me. 'Ms. Angelou,' he said, ,we're losing

Guy. We've got him back in surgery and we're losing him. You stay there

and we'll call you.'

 

"Of course, I could not stay in the hotel. I went directly to the hospital,

but I didn't go to the surgical floor. Instead, I went to the floor where

his room was, and I walked the hall. I walked along past all those

half-opened doors, and at times while I was walking I would suddenly feel I

was standing on wet sand that was sifting out from under my feet. Then I'd

say: 'Grab your life. Hold on to it. Hold on.' Loud. For three hours I

walked and talked. Then I felt solid.

 

"The doctors came up from surgery. 'Ms. Angelou,' they said, we're sorry.

He's alive, but he's paralyzed from his neck down.' I whispered, 'I see. I

see.' I went down to the intensive care unit and paced in and out waiting

for my son to wake up. By seven a.m. he was awake, and I went in and stood

looking down at him. Tubes were coming from everywhere. 'Mother,' he said,

'the thing I most feared has happened. I'm paralyzed.'

 

" 'It would seem so,' I answered.

 

" I am your only child,' he continued, 'and I know that you love me, but I

refuse to live as a talking head. If there's no chance for recovery, I want

to ask you to do something that no one should ever have to ask a mother.' Th

e tears were just rolling down his face. 'If there's no chance for me to

recover, please pull the plug and let me go.'

 

" 'In that case,' I said, 'total recovery, I see total recovery. I see you

walking, standing, playing basketball, and swimming. Now quit it right now.

I mean it.' That's what I said. Guy started laughing. He said, 'Mother,

please control yourself. There are some very sick people in here.'

 

"The doctors came to talk with me. They said, 'Ms. Angelou, Guy has had a

blood clot sitting on his spinal cord for eight hours. The cord is so

delicate that we don't dare breathe on it. He will never be able to move.'

 

"I said, ' I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. My son will walk out of

this hospital and I thank God for it - now!'

 

"One of the doctors started to say, 'We all have to...'

 

"And I said, 'You can't tell me. I'm going somewhere so far, so beyond you,

you're not even in it!' And every hour after that I'd say, 'Total recovery.

I thank You for it. I'm claiming it for this boy. Thank You. Total

recovery.'

 

"The next two days were busy. I called Dolly McPherson, my chosen sister,

and she got the whole prayer group at my church together. We had a Jewish

sister-friend, and she called people from her synagogue. A Catholic friend

called the people she knew in her parish. 'Go everybody, go,' I said. 'Do

what you can do.'

 

"The second night, I was lying on a couch in the ICU waiting room when a

nurse came in. She said, 'Ms. Angelou, Guy's moved his toes.' Together we

walked to Guy's room. She reached over and pulled the blanket off his feet

and Guy moved his toes. I said, 'Thank You, God. Didn't I ask You for it

and didn't You give it to me. Thank You for it. Thank You, God.'

 

"The next morning when I went in to see Guy he said, 'Mama, thank you for

your faith. I'll walk out of the hospital.'

 

"And that is exactly what he did a few months later. I know that prayer

changes things. I know. I don't question. I know."

[Guest guest]

Thanks so much for this, Mike... I've sent it on.

 

Love,

Dharma

>here is an interview in which Maya Angelou tells about her son's accident

>and his subsequent recovery. I thought some might find it interesting. Sorry

>if it's a bit long.