“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” ~ Frederick Douglass. Music formed the backdrop to my formative years.  In a little Jamaican town where the Saturday open air market was our mall, and the only place we got dressed up to go was church, we milked every ounce of pleasure out of music.  […]

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”~ Stephen Hawking. I never forget the first time I heard the saying that the definition of insanity is doing things the same way and expecting to get different results.  I was in one of those continuing education classes, trying to get my hours at the last minute […]

“Without music, life would be a mistake” ― Friedrich Nietzsche. Fridays used to be mental arithmetic day when I was in primary (elementary) school in Jamaica.  It was a special day anyway, a good half of the students had to stay home to help with the chores, so there was space to spread out on the […]

“Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.” ~ Malorie Blackman. I was not a girlie girl when I was young.  I am constantly flummoxed by the way little girls nowadays are in such a rush to grow up.  I remember being quite annoyed at receiving […]

“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have”. ~ James A. Baldwin. I know most people love to say that preachers’ and teachers’ kids are the worst.  In Jamaica we would say ‘parson pickni a di baddiss!’  But the reality of growing up in […]

“He that is down need fear no fall; he that is low,  no pride.”~ John Bunyan. I can think of a number of times in my life when I have stood on my high horse, determined to make a stand about something, only to have it backfire in some way.  Or times when I have […]

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”~ Langston Hughes. There are a few songs from my childhood memories that feature birds.  In wintertime in England we worried about poor robin-redbreast, who had to keep himself warm, by hiding his head under his wing (poor thing).  We […]

“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”~ Unknown. One of the challenges of becoming a nurse is learning the language.  First there is the medical terminology – many words are derived from Latin, so if you know any French or Spanish that may be a little helpful. But […]

“The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.”~ George Orwell. The first time I visited Jamaica after an absence of over 14 years, I fell in love all over again.  It was not difficult.  For a start I was staying up in the verdant hills of St. Andrew, looking up at the […]

“Positive anything is better than negative nothing.”~ Elbert Hubbard.  I aborted my exercise class after 45 minutes yesterday.  It was the first time I had attempted kickbox cardio in a while and it was kicking my butt! One of the big disadvantages of being a person of the Caucasian persuasion is that it is not […]