“The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson. My parents were both musicians. Both played piano and organ (in the church). My mother could read music, and taught all of us kids to do so also. Whether we learnt […]
‘In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future. ‘ ~Alex Haley. For most of my life I have lived apart from my nuclear family. Despite having numerous cousins on both sides, I have never lived close enough to bump into one in my neighborhood. In fact, most of […]
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl. I was not a child who could shrug off being teased. As the youngest I was particularly sensitive to being a step behind […]
“Motivation will almost always beat mere talent.” ~Norman Ralph Augustine. I learned more about muscle groups and their functions in the gym than I ever did in nursing school. To be honest, forty plus years ago, my hospital based nursing school had a system designed for you to learn on the wards, caring for real […]
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.’ ~ Michelangelo. Growing up in the country is so different from the city. One major difference is that in the country you ‘call to’ everyone as […]
“This is what I want in heaven… words to become notes and conversations to be symphonies.” ~ Tina Turner. I became a student of language when I moved to Jamaica from the UK as a child. Although English is the official tongue there, the first language of most Jamaicans is patois (‘patwah’); a wonderful blend […]
“What is a soul? It’s like electricity – we don’t really know what it is, but it’s a force that can light a room.” ~ Ray Charles. The history of words and language in Jamaica is very complicated, having ingredients from many continents, and left to stew over many centuries. There is a saying in […]
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” ~ Carl Rogers. I am the youngest in my family. I am sure everyone has their opinion of how their sequencing in sibling order has affected their growth and development, and there are books dedicated to that. Aren’t […]
“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” ~ Mother Teresa. When you grow up in a large family, you never seem to have any time to yourself. Certainly, you wouldn’t have your own bedroom, and there would always be a sibling or two, cousins, friends, to make any event a […]
“I have forgotten much, but still rememberThe poinsettia’s red, blood-red in warm December.” ~ Claude McKay. Memory is a funny thing. You never know what will trigger recall of a place, an event, people, even an emotion. It seems as if the memories are richer, fuller, when they occur spontaneously. If you set out to […]