Author Archives: bethpow06

FMM 3 15 2024 How Deep is your Love?

“I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.” ~ Harriet Tubman. My first brush with authority came when I was quite young, still living in England.  I had been influenced […]

FMM 3 8 2024 Big Tree, Small Axe

“A reading man and woman is a ready man and woman, but a writing man and woman is exact.” ~ Marcus Garvey. When I started high school in Jamaica, one of the highlights of this new experience was the ‘social’ also known as a ‘boogie’.  I suppose at the time the twin influences of the […]

FMM 3 1 2024 I Give Up!

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.” ~ W. C. Fields. I grew up in a church that followed the ecumenical calendar (I am not sure if that is the correct term, but it sounds good!), such as the lesser-known special […]

FMM 2 23 2024 Act Three

“I see retirement as just another of these reinventions, another chance to do new things and be a new version of myself.” ~ Walt Mossberg. My father retired from full-time employment at the age of almost 66.  At the time he was in fairly good health (although he had suffered a heart attack over a […]

FMM 2 16 2024 Legacy

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” ~ Aldous Huxley. February, although the shortest month, carries the weight of history.  In the US it is the month assigned to commemorate ‘Black History’, a term (like the country) which unfortunately continues to judge people by the color of their skin.  February […]

FMM 2 9 2024 Larger than Life

“Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.” ~ George Eliot. I don’t know how old I was when I went to my first funeral.  I know that it was not a requirement, even though my father was the minister of the church. But I was probably a teenager and a […]

FMM 2 2 2024 Community Health

‘Lean on me, when you’re not strong, and I’ll be your friend, I’ll help you carry on…For it won’t be long, ‘til I’m gonna need somebody to lean on.’ ~ Bill Withers. My professional introduction to mental health began in nursing school.  I was assigned to an inpatient facility which was housed in a beautiful […]

FMM 1 26 2024 Be on the Look Out!

“Doubt everything. Find your own light.” ~ attributed to The Buddha. When I was growing up, I was introduced to a weird way of earning good luck. Or was it a way to avoid bad luck? I had already learned of one superstitious practice, to throw salt over your left shoulder to prevent bad luck.  […]

FMM 1 19 2024 Don’t throw it all away!

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” ~ Mary Oliver. It has been said that travel broadens the mind. The thing about cliches is that they are often true, but repetition has rendered them trite.  On my recent visit to Jamaica I was reminded that when […]

FMM 1 12 2024 Going with the Flow

”All night, all day.Angels watching over me.” ~ (Trad). Although I was brought up in the church, I can’t say that the usual vision of heavenly angels was something I actively believed in.  Like fairies, elves and gnomes, they seemed to be a little too fantastical to be real.  Thus, the concept of life after […]