“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” ~ Maya Angelou.

There is something so peaceful about a house in the early morning, before dawn, before the neighborhood awakens.  It has always been a favorite time of day for me.  As a teenager I would do my best studying in those hours, free from distractions, refreshed after a night’s sleep.  As a working mother my day/night schedule was often confused, as I worked more night shifts than days in those years.  But when at home, those predawn hours were always marked by a sense of peace, a feeling that you had the world to yourself, before the craziness of the daily routine cranked up.

Friday mornings are extra special, that day before the weekend, a day which rewards you for the efforts of the week and promises that soon, very soon, you will get to those days of rest and renewal.  Again, as a nurse working in the healthcare setting, you missed that, since you were as likely to be working on the weekend as a weekday.  It wasn’t until I began to teach after thirty years of shift work that I understood that Friday morning feeling! 

One of the joys of retirement is being able to set your own schedule.  I still wake up early, but I no longer have to keep my eye on the time, think about the traffic and the commute, the workday ahead of me.  A friend recently asked me if I still felt guilty about not working and without thinking I responded ‘No!’.  And yet it was hard to get used to, after working all of your adult life. 

This week the colors black, green and gold have been on full display throughout my social media.  Jamaica was granted independence on August 6^th, 1962, and it has been celebrated in many different ways, though many different events both at home and abroad.  The annual celebration replaced the traditional celebration of Emancipation (August 1^st), one that had been introduced as a public holiday in 1893, almost 60 years after the abolition of slavery, and the end of the apprenticeship system in 1838.  Church services would be held beginning on July 31^st, and the church bells would ring out at dawn, joyfully announcing the day of emancipation.  Festivals and parades would follow.  After Independence, the celebrations moved to the 6^th of August.

It was Professor Rex Nettleford (among others) who campaigned for six years for the reinstatement of the Emancipation Day celebrations, which happened in 1997.  Of course, in true Jamaican wordsmith style, the two days have combined to become ‘Emancipendence’, with events taking place between the two dates.  But bringing back Emancipation Day is a reminder that if we are not careful, significant parts of history can be forgotten, glossed over, if we do not keep them alive in our thoughts and actions. 

It is important to recognize the atrocities that mankind has committed over the years.  Progress is made when we take the lessons of the past and change our behavior for the better.  In Germany the history of the concentration camps and the period of the Holocaust is maintained as a part of the curriculum for German school children.  Museums are dedicated to the gruesome facts, the torture, abuse and death of six million Jews.  This week also included the 80^th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, bombing that resulted in the deaths of 70,000 – 140,000 people, with many more dying from radiation related sicknesses over the years.  And yet despite the knowledge of the horrors of war, we are still unable to live in peace.  We turn our eyes from the reality of war-torn zones around the world; the starvation of children; the destruction of populations.  We hear about the children of Gaza, but what do you know about the conflict in Sudan which has displaced 12 million people, leaving half of the country’s population in need of humanitarian aid?

We are blessed to have storytellers in our midst, investigative journalists who risk their own lives to try to get the facts, photojournalists who try to capture the reality so that we can see the suffering that our fellow human beings are having to endure.  Here in the wealthiest country in the world, our government has decided that aid to foreign countries is something to be sacrificed, in the self-interest of the few. 

This week I enjoyed escaping into a British TV series, set in an imaginary police station in Belfast, but recognized another reality that I was unfamiliar with.  The ‘troubles’ (acts of violence between rival factions in Northern Ireland) officially ended with the ‘Good Friday Agreement’ of 1998.  The series portrayed the hostility and distrust of law enforcement that still exists.  But the line that stuck with me was the advice given by a senior office to his young trainee: ‘Take a beat’.  No matter what the situation is, take a beat before you react.  There may be more information you need to observe, perceptions to correct.

That advice could help many of us, whether it is a simple misunderstanding between two friends, or a major conflict between countries.  Take a beat, take a breath, think before you respond.  It can even apply to our health: take a beat, take a day off, restore your own energy before you go back to the demands of your life.  Take a beat, and dance to the beat of a reggae song, as you celebrate the ending of a horrendous practice that took away freedom from 12.5 million Africans and their descendants between 1525 and 1866.  Take a beat, and think about how we can make this world a better place.  

This Friday morning I hope you are able to celebrate all of the wonderful things in life, while being mindful of all we can take for granted.  And if you need to, take a beat, it may save you from saying or doing something which gets you in trouble!

Have a wonderful weekend, Family!

One Love!

Namaste.