“She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace.” — Oprah Winfrey on Dr. Maya Angelou

The world lost a beacon today. People more eloquent than I have summed up her life and her impact on the world.

Dr. Angelou, what I know of her and what I believe of her, has been my North Star for decades. She spoke with ease, she laughed with abandoned, she felt with a full heart, she encouraged with no regard for her ego, she taught with experience and patience, she expected with no patience for dips into our lesser selves, she aspired with no concern for career definition.

She loved with no fear.

In this week when we voice #YesAllWomen, I salute her as Woman.

I won’t say that she is who I want to be when I grow up. I am grown up, and I am on my own journey. But it is her light that I want to illuminate my path.