Category Global health and disparities

FMM 10 25 2024 Sacred Footprints

“Ya running and ya running,But ya can’t run away from yourself.” ~ Robert Nesta Marley. It is hard to imagine now, but there was a time when photographs were scarce commodities.  Cameras were not ubiquitous.  Film was expensive, and you wouldn’t know until it was developed how the photos would turn out.  My mother once […]

FMM 10 18 2024 Showdown!

“I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me.” ~ Maya Angelou. One night this week I awoke from a dream that had a very clear message, so clear that I immediately texted myself (my method of […]

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 10 4 2024 If we Should Live up in the Hills

‘Oh, sinnerman, where you gonna run to?Sinnerman where you gonna run to?Where you gonna run to?All on that day.’ ~ Nina Simone. I was spoilt by growing up in a land of lyrical beauty.  When Columbus reported back to Queen Isabella of Spain, about the lands he had ‘discovered’, he is said to have described […]

FMM 9 27 2024 How Very Dare You?

‘Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.’ ~ Helen Keller. When my children were little, their altered understanding of common phrases or things became our name for them.  The Hard Rock Stadium was erected a short distance from our home, and in its first naming was the Joe Robbie Stadium.  […]

FMM 9 20 2024 Sticks and Stones

“My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.” ~ Barack Obama. I have spent more than 85% of my life living in a land that was not the land of my birth.  Thus, as I recently posted on social media, I identify as Immigrant.  My […]

FMM 9 13 2024 Imagine a World

“Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe.” ~ Albert Einstein. Many years ago I attended a day of continuing education classes.  All nurses must complete a certain number of hours every two years, in order to renew their nursing licenses.  There […]

FMM 8 30 2024 Better to Give

“We may give without loving, but we cannot love without giving.” ~ Bernard Meltzer. When I moved to South Florida in the late 70’s, it was the third big cultural shift I had made in my young (ish) life.  My first move had been the most dramatic, emigrating from England to Jamaica at the age […]

FMM 8 23 2024 Keep the Faith

“As I get older, the more I stay focused on the acceptance of myself and others, and choose compassion over judgment and curiosity over fear.” ~ Tracee Ellis Ross. I have a confession to make.  On Friday mornings I get up with my phone, with notes to myself as my guide for what I will […]

FMM 8 16 2024 One Drop

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” ~ Marcus Garvey. I became a teenager at a time of racial upheaval in the USA. It coincided with the growing consciousness (‘woke’-ness) in Jamaica of young people of African descent. Rastafarianism and awareness of African culture […]