“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” ~ Desmond Tutu. This week has been a week of sudden memories, sparked by forgotten sensations.  It reminded me that with childbirth and the sight of a newborn child, memories of the prior child are recalled clear and fresh, even […]

“It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding.” ~ Erma Bombeck. Recently I answered a question posed about uniforms (for or against).  I shared that since I had worn uniforms for most of my childhood, and then for over thirty years of my adult life as […]

“I am not going to die, I’m going home like a shooting star.” ~ Sojourner Truth. They say you can’t go home again.  I have always had a problem with that concept, mostly because I have been fortunate to call many places home in my life.  A minister’s family (at least back in the day, […]

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.” ~ Joseph Campbell. I have never been good at long-term planning.  I remember being surprised when a nephew of mine, who was maybe 21 at the time, declared that he would have to change his life plan due to an obstacle […]

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” ~ John Muir. I have often written of my family’s tradition of going camping in the summer.  This was the cheapest way to get away from the city during the long summer holidays (or vacation, as they say in the US).  My parents […]

“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” ~ Victor Hugo. Music has been a part of my life, probably since conception.  When you grow up in the church, hymn singing is always going to be present, but in my family, we didn’t just listen to religious […]

“Love is a friendship set to music” ~ Joseph Campbell. The other day I reread something my father had written.  It was his tribute to and summary of his father’s life, on the 100th anniversary of his birth.  This was a man I did not know, as he had died before I was born.  I […]

“I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.” ~ Harriet Tubman. My first brush with authority came when I was quite young, still living in England.  I had been influenced […]

“A reading man and woman is a ready man and woman, but a writing man and woman is exact.” ~ Marcus Garvey. When I started high school in Jamaica, one of the highlights of this new experience was the ‘social’ also known as a ‘boogie’.  I suppose at the time the twin influences of the […]

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.” ~ W. C. Fields. I grew up in a church that followed the ecumenical calendar (I am not sure if that is the correct term, but it sounds good!), such as the lesser-known special […]