“Truth is powerful and it prevails.” ~ Sojourner Truth. I was submerged in diversity from an early age. Plucked from the rainy, grey city of Manchester in the UK, I was exposed to the natural beauty and colorful environment of rural Jamaica. They talk about culture shock, for those who move from one part of […]
“You’re imperfect, and you’re wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.” ~ Brene Brown. When I finally went back to school to get my undergraduate degree, I was around fifty years old. I had graduated from nursing school in the UK fresh out of high school, and had been working as […]
“What you do speaks so loud, that I cannot hear what you say.”~ C. L. Stuart. I suppose all of us can identify a teacher that made a huge impression on us as a child, for good or bad. In teaching ‘dosage calculation’ to nursing students, it is clear that many are traumatized by some […]
“It is not the critic who counts…” Theodore Roosevelt. This Friday morning, my message will be brief, for a variety of reasons. I have been reflecting on how difficult it can be, when you are a people pleaser from childhood, to be criticized. It feels personal. When I was in a position to be making […]
“You may bury my body down by the highway side. So my old evil spirit can catch a Greyhound bus and ride.” ~Robert Johnson. There is something about music that transports us. Last Saturday I was visiting Atlanta, and in one day experienced three distinct genres of music. I drove with my daughter-in-law to get […]
‘The pen is mightier than the sword, but the tongue is mightier than both of them.” ~ Marcus Garvey. It may be an advantage, or a disadvantage, but ever since I was seven, I have lived in countries and cultures that were not mine by birth. Moving from the UK to Jamaica at that age […]
“We’re one people, and we all live in the same house. Not the American house, but the world house.” ~ John Lewis. The best authors pull you in with their first sentence. It was Charles Dickens, that great storyteller, who has one of the best first sentences of all times, which inspired the title of […]
Let us now praise unfamous women, And our mothers that begat us. (Adapted from Ecclesiasticus 44:1). It may sound strange, but I find much to appreciate in a funeral. I have often learned more about the person who died at the celebration of their life, than I knew of them when alive. It so happens that last week I […]
“Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.” ~ Buddha. Last month I participated in a daily challenge. The challenge was daily, my participation was more sporadic. We were given a prompt to write a poem. One day the prompt […]
Friday Morning Messages 