Category Global health and disparities
FMM 3 31 2023 Dereliction of Duty
“I know of only one duty, and that is to love.” ~ Albert Camus. I was brought up by pacifists. My father and his two brothers refused to be enlisted in World War II because their Christian beliefs told them to love their enemies, and not to kill their fellow man. They each had to […]
FMM 3 24 2023 Diversity Equity Inclusion
“Truth is powerful and it prevails.” ~ Sojourner Truth. I was submerged in diversity from an early age. Plucked from the rainy, grey city of Manchester in the UK, I was exposed to the natural beauty and colorful environment of rural Jamaica. They talk about culture shock, for those who move from one part of […]
FMM 3 17 2023 One of Us
“You’re imperfect, and you’re wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.” ~ Brene Brown. When I finally went back to school to get my undergraduate degree, I was around fifty years old. I had graduated from nursing school in the UK fresh out of high school, and had been working as […]
FMM 2 17 2023 Meet me at the Crossroads
“You may bury my body down by the highway side. So my old evil spirit can catch a Greyhound bus and ride.” ~Robert Johnson. There is something about music that transports us. Last Saturday I was visiting Atlanta, and in one day experienced three distinct genres of music. I drove with my daughter-in-law to get […]
FMM 2 10 2023 Embedded
‘The pen is mightier than the sword, but the tongue is mightier than both of them.” ~ Marcus Garvey. It may be an advantage, or a disadvantage, but ever since I was seven, I have lived in countries and cultures that were not mine by birth. Moving from the UK to Jamaica at that age […]
FMM 2 3 2023 The Best of Us, the Worst of Us
“We’re one people, and we all live in the same house. Not the American house, but the world house.” ~ John Lewis. The best authors pull you in with their first sentence. It was Charles Dickens, that great storyteller, who has one of the best first sentences of all times, which inspired the title of […]
FMM 12 30 2022 Casting Long Shadows
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” ~ John Muir. The week between Christmas and the New Year has always been special to me, mostly because my birthday falls in this week. Today is extra special because […]
FMM 12 23 2022 Catch the Spirit
“A sense of the universe, a sense of the all, the nostalgia which seizes us when confronted by nature, beauty, music – these seem to be an expectation and awareness of a Great Presence.” ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. With Christmas almost upon us, it has been interesting to reflect on the strange absence of […]
FMM 12 2 22 Not my cup of tea
“Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.” ~ Joseph Campbell. I don’t know when I started to drink coffee. In my childhood (born in England), tea was naturally the first choice. It is introduced to children in a form more milk than tea, poured into a saucer to cool faster, […]