Category Inspirational

FMM 1 6 2023 Higher Ground

“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.”  ~ Albert Einstein. If all things were equal, I would live within sight of mountains.  Anyone who knows me, knows this about me.  I was born in a city (Manchester, UK) which is not far from the Pennines, a chain of hills that separate […]

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 16 2022 What is your intention?

FMM 12 16 2022 What is your intention? “Life, if well lived, is long enough.” ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca. December is the best month.  I say this, of course, because it is the month of my birth.  And then there is that other great day that falls just five days before my day.  As a […]

FMM 12 9 2022 The Prism of Poetry

“Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.” ~ Khalil Gibran. I remember writing stories as a child, whether it was school assigned or spontaneous I don’t recall.  It was not until I was in my thirties that I decided I wanted to write, and went out […]

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, […]

FMM 11 25 22 Metamorphosis

“The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.” ~ Lao Tzu. When I was a teenager, one of my sisters, who was already in nursing school, came home to Jamaica to visit.  She brought presents for us, and mine was a big, shiny, coffee-table type illustrated book of […]

11 18 2022 Citizen of the World

“We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community.”~ Haile Selassie. My grandmother was born in Patagonia, Argentina. Her parents had […]

FMM 11 11 2022 The Untethered Spirit

“Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.” ~ Thomas Merton. My father went to Jamaica in 1963, having accepted two jobs. One was to be minister of a charge with only three churches (the usual charge had five or more churches), and the other to be chaplain and part time teacher at the […]

FMM 11 4 2022 The Sound of Silence

“Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind the stronger the trees.” ~ Thomas S. Monson. I traveled to Jamaica with my family in 1963, sailing on the SS Ascania.  Our journey was extended by several days, as we had to observe protocol, and allow a killer to exit the Caribbean before […]