Category transcendence
FMM 11 10 2023 Where have all the flowers gone?
“The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth.” ~ Chief Seattle. I have no idea when I met my first frog. I do remember learning about the amazing life cycle, the eggs looking like a blob with the weird name: frog spawn. The transformation into little wriggling things with tails and […]
FMM 10 27 23 Reconstructing Family
“Little children are still the symbol of the eternal marriage between love and duty.” ~ George Eliot. It seems obscene to say this, but fifty years ago I was a senior in high school (in Upper Sixth Form as we say in the old British system). I had lived most of my life in Jamaica, […]
FMM 10 20 2023 Take a Breath, Nurse
“I’m like a recovering perfectionist. For me it’s one day at a time.” ~ Brene Brown. I don’t know when I first heard the word ‘codependent’. It certainly wasn’t a term when we were in nursing school. When I did read about it, I recognized myself in the description. Part of it was the need […]
FMM 10 13 2023 Make Love Not War
“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.” ~ Francis of Assisi. I have never been good in a fight. Physical fights were not allowed in our household growing up. When the church is a big part of your upbringing, ‘turn the other cheek’ and ‘a soft […]
FMM 10 6 2023 Where I lay my hat
“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” ~ Maya Angelou. Traditions are funny things. One of the reasons that special seasons have special meaning is because we do the same thing each year. In England, going to Pantomime around […]
FMM 9 22 2023 Enjoy Yourself!
“To love yourself right now, just as you are, is to give yourself heaven. Don’t wait until you die. If you wait, you die now. If you love, you live now.” ~ Alan Cohen. As I wrestled with sleep, a strange memory came to mind. My mother, like many of her generation, began wearing false […]
FMM 9 15 2023 For the Nurses
“I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, – light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.” ~ John Constable. I know without a doubt that my life would have been very different had I not been transplanted at an early age […]
FMM 9 8 2023 ‘Don’t be so puerile!’
“Life may have plans that will completely overthrow your pettiness.” ~ Jeetendra. I learned to read when I was very young but of course I would stumble against unusual words. For some reason I can remember learning to say the alphabet in phonetic style rather than naming the letters, so that one day I was […]
FMM 9 1 2023 Rock Steady, Baby!
“Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one.” ~ Hans Selye. I don’t know when I became a worrier. It would be interesting to know if it was in my nature, or if it was nurtured. I often laughed at a story I told of my mother, who, one night […]