Category Global health and disparities
FMM 5 20 2022 Follow the Moss
“Sustainability is no longer about doing less harm. It’s about doing more good.” ~ Jochen Zeitz. I was a girl scout for a few years, as a child. I don’t recall us doing too many adventures; we were mostly confined to the spacious campus of our high school. I remember learning useful skills like (pause, […]
FMM 5 6 2022 No wrong path
‘Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity.’ ~ Thich Nhat Hanh. The first time I went to Key West, it still had the sleepy quality of a fishing village. I was immediately in love. Four years before I had been living in Jamaica, and Key West […]
FMM 4 29 2022 Fight for the Right
“Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.” ~ Khalil Gibran. I can clearly remember the first time I wore pants – as in long pants, not jeans. I was young (less than eight, as it was when I was still living in the UK). In my memory the pants were plaid, but I […]
FMM 4 22 2022 Thank you for Thanking me!
“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” ~ Carl Jung. Childhood is a time of puzzling mysteries. We try to make sense of our world, and of the complexities of human beings, of why things are, things that grown-ups seem to […]
FMM 4 8 2022 Sustainable Optimism
“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” ~ Pablo Picasso. I am always amazed that my hand cannot produce what my mind sees. I love to draw, and frequently illustrate my lectures with beautiful sketches of human organs. My audience is not as impressed as I would hope. […]
FMM 4 1 2022 To Bear Witness
“Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.” ~ Khalil Gibran. I don’t remember the first poem I ever learned although I’m sure it was a ‘nursery rhyme’. One of my aunts gave me a book of poetry when I was quite young. It was entitled ‘The […]
FMM 3 11 2022 Existential Advocacy
“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe. I always thought I had a pretty good vocabulary. Until I went back to school in my fifties. As the youngest of the family, I listened and learned from those older than me. I had access […]
FMM 3 4 2022 Artivism
“Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.” ~ Stella Adler. The power of the poet is their ability to crystallize and synthesize diverse situations into a few lines that leave a lasting impression. I don’t remember when it was that I learned about a couple of English […]
FMM 2 25 2022 Kindling
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” ~ George Eliot. I was born in a cold and rainy city, in a cold December month. At that time in England, the most common heating source in the houses was a coal fire-place. Coal was dirty, full of dust, brought deep out […]
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. […]