“Effective health care depends on self-care.  This fact is currently heralded as if it were a discovery.” ~ Ivan Illich.   I am a master at the art of procrastination, have practiced it ever since I was a child.  Despite the moralistic stance I take with my students when I find them guilty of the […]

FMM 9 12 14 “Mirror, mirror, on the wall…” “How far that little candle throws his beams!  So shines a good deed in a weary world.”~ William Shakespeare The full moon shone through my window this week.  I can remember the moon in Jamaica, rising up over the cane piece and lighting up my bedroom.  […]

“I am not a teacher, but an awakener.” ~ Robert Frost Have you ever had a gut feeling, a firm intuition that you were doing the right thing at the right time?  I can’t say that I have.  I am not blessed with those inner certainties, that unspoken confirmation.  Maybe it is that I just don’t recognize […]

”It is the marriage of the soul with nature that makes the intellect fruitful and gives birth to the imagination.”~Henry James Thoreau   Jamaicans have a way with words.  One of their favorite adjectives is ‘nuff’.  And though it sounds as if it derives from the word ‘enough’, it is used to denote more than […]

“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.   Being a teacher means you have to be an unself-conscious performer.  A big part of the job is holding the attention of the class, and to do that you have to be an entertainer.  […]

“Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.” ~ H.L. Mencken   Last year I finally bought myself a Prius.  I knew I would be driving a lot this year (already gone over 10,000 miles) so I was motivated to conserve.  I chose a color that makes me smile.  They call it […]

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” ~Frederick Douglass I often joke that it is easy to blame your parents for everything that you think is wrong with you, until you have children of your own.  Then, all of a sudden, you realize that it is not that easy being a […]

“One day there will be no borders, no boundaries, no flags and no countries and the only passport will be the heart” ~ Carlos Santana I come from a line of nomads.  People who left their ancestral lands in search of opportunities, vocations, a living, a dream.  My grandmother was born in Patagonia (Argentina), a cruel landscape […]

“Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl  It has been almost 40 years since my Uncle Glyn died.  I am now about the age he was then.  My uncle dream me the other night (= I had a dream about him).  And so I […]

“If we must die, O let us nobly die, so that our precious blood may not be shed in vain;”~ Claude McKay.  We do not like to talk about death, neither our own nor of those close to us.  It is as if we will jinx ourselves, somehow the grim reaper will be reminded of […]