“Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.”~Leo Buscaglia. Picture me at ten years old, the only little white girl in a rural Jamaican school, convinced I could fit in if only I could speak like a Jamaican. One of the realities of our lives is that we can only see […]
“Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.”~Rabindranath Tagore. I remember as a child making a determined effort to get my untidy room under control. I knew I was the one who needed to change my ways, and when I was finished I made a poster with a positive message, and displayed […]
“To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal.”~A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. My mother was the kind of housewife who hated the mundane repetition of regular cleaning and dusting. She much preferred those jobs that required some degree of creativity. She loved to bake, crafting endless variations on a theme (a friend […]
“You must stick to your conviction, but prepare to abandon your assumptions.”~ Denis Waitley. One of the first riddles I learned to tell was (and this is better spoken than written): “What is black and white and red (read) all over?” The answer was a newspaper. I grew up in a household that read newspapers religiously. […]
“To handle a language skillfully is to practice a kind of evocative sorcery.”~Charles Baudelaire. Welsh, it is often said, is the language of heaven. To be honest, it is mostly Welsh people who say this! It was my father’s first language, the language of home and church. It is a challenging language, full of strange sounds […]
“Every day brings new choices.”~ Martha Beck. My mother had a special personality. She could be quite harsh, but often didn’t realize how that came across. She was, in fact, a contrarian, not trying to be like others, she never made an effort to fit in. But she had a sense of humor, and could […]
“The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.”~Albert Schweitzer. My father-in-law was a simple man. His wife died and left him with four young kids, and he raised them in the old-fashioned Jamaican way, sure that firm discipline and education were essential to a good upbringing. […]
“Every time I hear the sound, the sound, the sound…” ~Mutabaruka. I grew up surrounded by music, music of every description. There were hymns and choir practice of course. My father was a singer (the Welsh are famous for their Male Voice Choirs), and long road trips were often accompanied by family sing-a-longs. Included in […]
“Half the story has never been told…” ~ Robert Nesta Marley. Superstitions are funny things. For whatever reason, human beings hold on to unreasonable beliefs, even after science refutes them. Whenever my mother spilled salt, she would always pick up a pinch and throw it over her left shoulder. I am not sure what that […]
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