Category Global health and disparities

FMM 11 21 14 Spiritual Whiplash

  “Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free.  Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing.  This is the ultimate.”~ Zhuangzi Going on vacation can be a big problem.  There are those who have a really hard time transitioning from their normal hectic routine to the lesser demands of recreation.  The […]

FMM 11 14 14 Strange Magic

“There’s a natural mystic blowing through the air”~Robert Nesta Marley.   For a long time I resented the author Terry McMillan (of Stella fame).   Her semi-autobiographical novel set in Jamaica came out not long after my first trip to my adopted home after fourteen years of exile.  I felt quite strongly that somehow the seed […]

FMM 10 31 14 Push Pause

 “We do not heal the past by dwelling there. We heal the past by living in the present.”~ Marianne Williamson.   We are addicted to technology.  Yesterday, I asked two different groups of students what something meant, and suggested that they look something up.  In both cases, a student immediately reached for their phone, not […]

FMM 10 24 14 Year of Rebirth

“Ah but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”~ Bob Dylan   My daughter’s 35th birthday last weekend prompted my mind to scroll through pages of memories.  Not only of her childhood, but of a watershed year, one that followed my own 35th birthday.  For a start, I managed to get […]

FMM 10 17 14 Conspiracy of Silence

“In the end we will remember, not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.  One of the tragedies of abuse is the secrets and lies.  Children who are abused are sworn to secrecy by their abusers.  They come to believe that harm will come, to them or […]

FMM 10 10 14 Clanging Cymbals

“Ring the alarm, another sound is dying…” ~ Tenor Saw  There is a delicate balance that needs to be struck between informing the public and inciting panic.  We are seeing this played out in the media as they ramp up the rhetoric about Ebola.  To the outside world the US must appear to be extremely […]

FMM 10 3 14 Tunnel Vision

“Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”~Paul Simon I had a stark reminder recently of the importance of paying attention.  Twice.  I  pulled up at the light in the early morning twilight.  Before making a right turn on a red light, I carefully checked out the oncoming traffic to […]

FMM 8 15 14 ‘Someone to watch over me’

“Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.” ~ H.L. Mencken   Last year I finally bought myself a Prius.  I knew I would be driving a lot this year (already gone over 10,000 miles) so I was motivated to conserve.  I chose a color that makes me smile.  They call it […]

FMM 8 8 14 The Joy of Parenthood

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” ~Frederick Douglass I often joke that it is easy to blame your parents for everything that you think is wrong with you, until you have children of your own.  Then, all of a sudden, you realize that it is not that easy being a […]

FMM 8 1 14 We are One

“One day there will be no borders, no boundaries, no flags and no countries and the only passport will be the heart” ~ Carlos Santana I come from a line of nomads.  People who left their ancestral lands in search of opportunities, vocations, a living, a dream.  My grandmother was born in Patagonia (Argentina), a cruel landscape […]