Category Inspirational
FMM 7 3 2026 Talk the Truth
‘Speak the truth and speak it ever, cost it what you will, He who hides the thing he did, does the wrong thing still’ ~ Jamaican Proverb. Growing up in Jamaica I was exposed to, not only a new language, but a new way of speaking. The ‘ole time’ country people in particular seemed to […]
FMM 6 26 2026 Go Against the Flow
“Celebrate the idea that you don’t fit in. Find your own fit. Stay unique.” ~ Betsey Johnson. When my father-in-law died over twenty years ago, the family all came together for his funeral. It was a typical Jamaican funeral, although at the time the ‘set-up’ (night before, an all-night wake) had not evolved into the […]
FMM 6 19 2026 Words Misspoken
‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. I learned to read quite early, although I cannot tell you at what age. When I went to school in England, the way of teaching reading and writing was by the phonics […]
FMM 6 12 2026 No Catastrophizing Necessary
“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi. When I switched careers (somewhat) after the age of 50, I learned something very important: you cannot teach what you do not know. My first career (first love) was nursing, and I […]
FMM 6 5 2026 Watch me!
“Children should have enough freedom to be themselves – once they’ve learned the rules.” ~ Anna Quindlen. I always knew I wanted to have kids, to have a large family. I had grown up as the youngest of five, then six (my informally adopted older sister came to live with us when she was seventeen), […]
FMM 5 29 2026 When the Wood is Green
“Trust dies but mistrust blossoms.” ~ Sophocles. Full disclosure: Having recently returned from a road trip that ended at 3:00 am a few days ago, I am still lagging. We traversed eleven states to our furthest destination, and returned through an additional five, seeing beautiful countryside, trees in full Spring-time greenery and blossoms, and avoiding […]
FMM 5 22 2026 Spring Always Comes
“Everyone 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. When I first arrived in the US as a newly graduated nurse, I knew American History only vaguely. So I was floored when, in an encounter with […]
FMM 5 15 2026 Hold a Medz
“America’s present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.” ~ Warren G. Harding. My father, a Christian and a Pacifist, went before a tribunal during World War II to defend his belief that he had no right to kill his fellow man. His appeal was approved, but unlike […]
FMM 5 8 2026 Reciprocity
“For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it, If only we’re brave enough to be it” ~ Amanda Gorman. I don’t remember how I felt about mathematics as a child. When we moved to Jamaica, I started out in a small private ‘Prep’ school, and was doing well until I […]
FMM 5 1 2026 Legends and Myths
“Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself.” ~ Octavia E. Butler. I was an avid reader as a child. Well, I guess I still am! But I remember in particular a book called ‘Swallows and Amazons’. It was a story of imagination, told from the point of view of a group […]