“This is what I want in heaven… words to become notes and conversations to be symphonies.” ~ Tina Turner. I became a student of language when I moved to Jamaica from the UK as a child. Although English is the official tongue there, the first language of most Jamaicans is patois (‘patwah’); a wonderful blend […]
“What is a soul? It’s like electricity – we don’t really know what it is, but it’s a force that can light a room.” ~ Ray Charles. The history of words and language in Jamaica is very complicated, having ingredients from many continents, and left to stew over many centuries. There is a saying in […]
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” ~ Carl Rogers. I am the youngest in my family. I am sure everyone has their opinion of how their sequencing in sibling order has affected their growth and development, and there are books dedicated to that. Aren’t […]
“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” ~ Mother Teresa. When you grow up in a large family, you never seem to have any time to yourself. Certainly, you wouldn’t have your own bedroom, and there would always be a sibling or two, cousins, friends, to make any event a […]
“I have forgotten much, but still rememberThe poinsettia’s red, blood-red in warm December.” ~ Claude McKay. Memory is a funny thing. You never know what will trigger recall of a place, an event, people, even an emotion. It seems as if the memories are richer, fuller, when they occur spontaneously. If you set out to […]
“I would look up, and laugh, and love, and lift.” ~ Howard A. Walter. I want to say that my relationship with music began around the time I moved to Jamaica (which would be appropriate, though possibly not accurate). My early days in Jamaica would usually end in music, since a television was not a […]
“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” ~ Coretta Scott King. My mother was one of those annoying parents/teachers who was never off duty. She would be on your case in every way, checking on your posture, your behaviour, your manners, she never took a day […]
“Of all men’s miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.” ~ Herodotus. I used to be an excellent worrier. I somehow felt that if I imagined all of the possible bad outcomes that could happen, then they wouldn’t happen. It would be arrogance on my part (I […]
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”~ Martin Luther King, Jr. Growing up in the church, you have lots of Bible stories to entertain you, many of them appealing to kids. Picture animals marching two by two into a ship, as Noah gets ready for an apocalyptic flood. Or Moses parting the […]
“I know of only one duty, and that is to love.” ~ Albert Camus. I was brought up by pacifists. My father and his two brothers refused to be enlisted in World War II because their Christian beliefs told them to love their enemies, and not to kill their fellow man. They each had to […]
Friday Morning Messages 