“I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers”~Khalil Gibran. The older we get, the harder it is to be fed a line. We have grown from being idealists to being cynics. When someone pays us a compliment we may […]
“Or being hated, don’t give way to hating…”~Rudyard Kipling (‘If’). My father used to hate crowded places. He did not go happily (if he went at all) to fairs or festivals, crowds of people and loud noises. I tend to react the same way to multiple people talking at the same time, it seems confusing […]
“Love’s in need of love today.”~Stevie Wonder. The father of my children was a complex man. He could argue all day on a variety of topics: sports, politics, injustice, you name it. What animated him was the history of injustice perpetrated on Africa and people of African descent world over. He was not a fan […]
“Each man’s joy is joy to me; each man’s grief is my own.”~Joan Baez. When I was a child I held my (only, older) brother in high esteem. I basically thought he was the expert on everything. He broke my heart when he told me the truth about Santa Claus (Father Christmas in our tradition). […]
“Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom” ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “Use your common sense, child!” I remember being told this when I was young. I imagine it was said in exasperation by one or other of my parents, probably in response to some obvious question I had asked. Perhaps a […]
“Fighting against isms and schisms”~ Robert Nesta Marley. Jamaica is a land of diversity. Some are not prepared for the range of colors and races that co-exist in that small island. The country’s motto is: “Out of many, one People”. The outward appearance may reflect an origin in India, China, Africa, the Middle East, or […]
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”~ Carl G. Jung My father ‘dream’ me this week. This is the Jamaican way for saying you have been visited in your dream by someone, usually one who has passed on. Of course these dreams are seen as particularly significant, for there must […]
“Grace has been defined as the outward expression of the inner harmony of the soul”~William Hazlitt. One of my mother’s four older sisters was called Grace. She was named for their mother, my grandmother. My Auntie Grace was a character, with a wicked sense of humor and a ready laugh. She died when I was still […]
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