Author Archives: bethpow06
FMM 2 18 2022 Bang a Gong!
“Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.” ~ Langston Hughes. When I relocated from the UK to Jamaica at the age of almost eight, one of my first friends who lived close by had the added bonus of a having a houseful of younger siblings. […]
FMM 2 11 2022 Healing Power
“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” ~ Desmond Tutu. I grew up hearing African freedom songs. In my early years as a child in Jamaica, there was no television. My parents had brought their eclectic record collection and a record player, and in the evening my father […]
FMM 2 4 2022 More than Conquerors!
“But I’d rather be a free man in my grave, than living as a puppet or a slave.” ~ James Chambers aka Jimmy Cliff. When you grow up in the country, (especially in Jamaica) the facts of life and in particular, death, are hard to avoid. You can hear the sounds of a hog squealing […]
FMM 1 28 2022 This I do for Me!
“Guilt can stop us from taking healthy care of ourselves.” ~ Melody Beattie. This week I found myself in a familiar role, one that is not mentioned in my job description, and probably is outside of my scope of practice also. Nurses have a whole section of state statutes covering our practice (the Nurse Practice […]
FMM 1 21 2022 On the Tiptoe of Expectation
“People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.” ~ James Baldwin. My father was a minister (parson, preacher) by education and vocation, but became a teacher when we moved to Jamaica. He had two jobs, his charge of three churches, and to be chaplain and parttime Bible Knowledge teacher at the high […]
FMM 1 14 2022 Reggaefication Redux
“Where destruction is the motive, unity is dangerous.” ~ Ravi Zacharias. I may be prejudiced, but there is something special about Jamaica the country and Jamaica the people. When my mother was in the last decade of her life, after she had lost her life partner (married for 66 years, engaged for 3 years before […]
FMM 1 7 2022 Let’s talk about…
“The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.” ~ Maximilien Robespierre. I must have been in my forties when I learned something about my family I had never known before. I learned it around the same time as the rest of my siblings, although I […]
FMM 12 31 2021 Meet me at the Crossroads
“Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths towards freedom and justice.” ~ Desmond Tutu. In Jamaica you can probably find somewhere called ‘Crossroads’ in every parish. Whether it is an official or unofficial name, it is of course descriptive. Where I grew up in Chapelton, there was a district known as Crossroads, […]
FMM 12 24 2021 A Ritualistic Life
“In many traditions, the world was sung into being: Aboriginal Australians believe their ancestors did so. In Hindu and Buddhist thought, Om was the seed syllable that created the world.” ~ Jay Griffiths. December has always been a special month for me, since it is my birth month. There is also that special time they […]
FMM 12 17 2021 Platforms
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” ~ Edith Wharton. The first corny joke that I remember learning was a play on words. This is not as effective when you have to read it, but here goes: “What is black and white and red all […]
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