Category Food and health
FMM 10 11 2024 Oh Canada!
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”~ Martin Luther King, Jr. I have links with Canada on both sides of my family tree. Many years ago, my great-grandparents (on my father’s side) decided to emigrate to Canada. This was their second migration. Earlier, shortly after they got […]
FMM 7 26 2024 Awaking to Presence
“An awareness of one’s mortality can lead you to wake up and live an authentic, meaningful life.” ~ Bernie Siegel. When my father was in his mid-fifties, he had a heart attack. It sneaked up on him, aches and pains in his left shoulder, that he ascribed to driving up and down the winding country […]
FMM 6 14 2024 Take Care
“Life is abundant, and life is beautiful. And it’s a good place that we’re all in, you know, on this earth, if we take care of it.” ~ Alice Walker. I decided I wanted to be a nurse when I was very young. I don’t know who was my role model, or my inspiration. My […]
FMM 4 12 2024 What’s the Plan?
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.” ~ Joseph Campbell. I have never been good at long-term planning. I remember being surprised when a nephew of mine, who was maybe 21 at the time, declared that he would have to change his life plan due to an obstacle […]
FMM 4 5 2024 Peaceful, Easy Feeling
“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” ~ John Muir. I have often written of my family’s tradition of going camping in the summer. This was the cheapest way to get away from the city during the long summer holidays (or vacation, as they say in the US). My parents […]
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 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 12 12 2023 My First Love
FMM 12 22 2023 My First Love “I have forgotten much, but still remember The poinsettia’s red, blood-red in warm December” ~ Claude McKay. My parents came of age in a country at war. Britain was mobilized against the threat of a fascist, one whose dream was to take over the world. My mother was only […]
FMM 10 20 2023 Take a Breath, Nurse
“I’m like a recovering perfectionist. For me it’s one day at a time.” ~ Brene Brown. I don’t know when I first heard the word ‘codependent’. It certainly wasn’t a term when we were in nursing school. When I did read about it, I recognized myself in the description. Part of it was the need […]
FMM 7 28 2023 Whither the Weather?
“I have forgotten much, but still remember Poinsettia’s red, blood-red, in warm December.” ~ Claude McKay. When I left England at age almost eight, it was a rainy, damp place. Skies and buildings were drab and grey. I am sure there was sunshine, occasionally, but it was in sharp contrast to the tropical island we […]