Category Inspirational

FMM 10 24 25 Galluping Away!

“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” ~ Unknown. My mother had a few odd sayings she would throw at me when, as a teenager, I would be obsessing about some perceived flaw (usually on my face).  ‘A blind man and (or on?)  a galloping horse…’ which was […]

FMM 10 17 2025 So Let us Live!

“We been fighting for all the wrong stuff, We better fight to stay in love.” ~ Tanya Stephens. One of my favorite stories about my childhood arrival in rural Jamaica, which I have probably told many times, is about our encounter with a snoring animal.  It was bad enough trying to adjust to the sounds […]

FMM 10 10 2025 Falling for You

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” ~ Charles Spurgeon. Back in the day, many years ago, before we had personal computers or smart phones, before the Internet, we used to communicate by sending handwritten (or typed, if you were fancy or in business) letters.  These […]

FMM 10 3 2025 Walk a Mile in My Skin

“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt. My father was a planner.  Before he moved his family (wife and five children of whom I was the youngest) and all of their worldly […]

FMM 9 26 2025 Laughter, the best Medicine

“To him who is in fear, everything rustles.” ~ Sophocles. I remember finding a book of jokes, when I was quite young.  I was a good reader, and these jokes were fairly easy to decipher especially as the book was illustrated with drawings.  One joke told of a man carefully driving a little car on […]

FMM 9 19 2025 All we need is Hope

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness” ~ Desmond Tutu. Manchester, England used to be famous for its rainfall.  Having lived there as an adult for three years, over 40 years ago, I can attest to there being lots of grey sky, frequent rainy days, quite a […]

FMM 9 12 2025 How Free is Free?

“America’s greatest contribution to the world is its concept of democracy, its concept of freedom, freedom of action, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought.” ~ Benazir Bhutto. Although I was old enough, I cannot say I remember where I was when Kennedy was killed.  Our family had just moved to Jamaica, and I imagine […]

FMM 9 5 2025 Lively up Yourself!

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” ~  Rabindranath Tagore. When you grow up in the church, it goes without saying that you soon learn that doing unto others, caring for the least among us, is done without thinking.  […]

FMM 8 29 2025 I am no Expert…

“’Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.” ~ Alice Walker. One of the first things I learned, once I began teaching nursing students, was how much I had to relearn.  The temptation, especially after having been a nurse for […]

FMM 8 22 2025 Stutter-stepping through Life

“To sin by silence, when we should protest, Makes cowards out of men.” ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox. When it comes to gifts and blessings, the nurse learns early on that health has to be number one.  Even if you were not exposed to illness before entering the healthcare field, it is not long before you […]