Tag Archives: health
FMM 10 24 25 Galluping Away!
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” ~ Unknown. My mother had a few odd sayings she would throw at me when, as a teenager, I would be obsessing about some perceived flaw (usually on my face). ‘A blind man and (or on?) a galloping horse…’ which was […]
FMM 5 23 2025 Secrets and Shame
“What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.” ~ Friedrick Nietzsche. One of the joys of retirement is that road trips can be the way to get to far distant events. This also means that routines are disrupted, and Friday morning messages are late! Which is the case […]
FMM 5 16 2025 ‘Don’t Stress Me!’
“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.” ~ Leo Buscaglia. I migrated to the US in 1978, fresh out of nursing school in the UK (land of my birth), after growing up in Jamaica (land of my rebirth). My boyfriend had moved to Miami, and that was enough […]
FMM 3 14 2025 Holding Space
“… everything on earth can be eliminated under the right conditions.” ~ Louise Erdrich. Some years ago I had an experience which proved invaluable in the classroom: I witnessed a man experiencing the sudden onset of a stroke. We were at a fundraising dance together, he had gone to buy us a drink each, and […]
FMM 12 13 2024 Expanded Consciousness
“He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.”~ Thomas Carlyle. It is a funny thing about vacations. I well remember what we called our ‘summer holidays’ when I was young. We were out of school from July to September, and the weeks stretched out ahead of us as if they […]
FMM 11 22 2024 No Time for Tears
“They don’t want to see us uniteAll they want us to do is keep on fussing and fighting.” ~ Robert Nesta Marley. More than 25 years ago, a very close friend of my husband was murdered. In cold blood, in his driveway one morning. He (the friend) had been involved with some unsavory characters and […]
FMM 7 26 2024 Awaking to Presence
“An awareness of one’s mortality can lead you to wake up and live an authentic, meaningful life.” ~ Bernie Siegel. When my father was in his mid-fifties, he had a heart attack. It sneaked up on him, aches and pains in his left shoulder, that he ascribed to driving up and down the winding country […]
FMM 7 19 2024 Bout Better Being
“I’m like a recovering perfectionist. For me it’s one day at a time.” ~ Brene Brown. When I was eleven, I sat what was known as the ‘Common Entrance Exam’. This was in Jamaica, and was common to all British based educational systems. I forget how long it lasted, but it was a serious event, […]
FMM 6 14 2024 Take Care
“Life is abundant, and life is beautiful. And it’s a good place that we’re all in, you know, on this earth, if we take care of it.” ~ Alice Walker. I decided I wanted to be a nurse when I was very young. I don’t know who was my role model, or my inspiration. My […]
FMM 2 2 2024 Community Health
‘Lean on me, when you’re not strong, and I’ll be your friend, I’ll help you carry on…For it won’t be long, ‘til I’m gonna need somebody to lean on.’ ~ Bill Withers. My professional introduction to mental health began in nursing school. I was assigned to an inpatient facility which was housed in a beautiful […]