Author Archives: bethpow06

FMM 9 11 2020 5 o’clock Somewhere

“What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know.” ~ Saint Augustine. It was impossible this week not to feel nostalgic and emotional. Yesterday marked 100 years since the birth of my father. It was a […]

FMM 9 4 2020 Pocomaniac

“Like clouds and winds without rain    is the man who brags        about gifts he never gave.” ~ Proverbs 25: 14. I have always been attracted to things that are a little quirky, off center, not the norm.  I blame my father, he was the one who taught me to see life from a slanted perspective, recognizing that […]

FMM 8 28 2020 Crystal Vision

FMM 8 28 2020 Crystal Vision “I’m gonna put on an iron shirt and chase Satan out of earth.” ~ Maxi Romeo. If you grew up in a Christian household like I did, you were discouraged from believing, or even showing an interest in things like astrology.  There was something pagan and sacrilegious about it.  […]

FMM 8 21 2020 Hear me

“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” ~ James Baldwin. My mother was a talker.  Later in life we surmised that her childhood may have been difficult, parents who sometimes didn’t speak to each other for months, so perhaps the children developed the […]

FMM 8 14 2020 Staying Alive

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh.   I wonder when it was that man first saw an animal as a pet, rather than as a work partner, a tool extender.  I remember hearing that it wasn’t until […]

FMM 8 7 2020 Ah the Humanity

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.” ~ Dalai Lama. If you were to ask me whether I was an arts or sciences kind of student I would immediately select the sciences.  Most of the subjects I sat in my Cambridge ‘O’ (for ordinary) Level exams, and all of those I […]

FMM 7 31 2020 Code Switching

“The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson. For many of us foot-loose travelers, the last few months of home confinement have been quite a punishment.  Yet even as we express that, we feel a little guilty, aware of […]

FMM 7 24 2020 It Never Happened

“A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession.” ~ Albert Camus.   I am not sure if I have ever publicly confessed to two sins of my childhood. In one case, the person most affected is still alive, and so I have the opportunity to beg forgiveness (finally).  In the […]

FMM 7 17 2020

“The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.” ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca. This week I had one of those dreams that seems so real, yet cannot be told as a story when you wake up.  What seemed to have plot and purpose breaks up into images and situations which […]

FMM 7 10 2020 It’s an Illusion

“The ignorant mind, with its infinite afflictions, passions, and evils, is rooted in the three poisons. Greed, anger, and delusion.” ~ Bodhidharma.   In my youth I was an avid reader.  From the simple fairy tales of childhood, through girl detective stories to historical romances, I read them all.  Short stories were special treats, you […]