Tag Archives: Jamaica
FMM 7 14 17 Tell me a Story
“Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.”~ Hannah Arendt. When your father is a minister you grow up seeing him as a man of authority, commanding space, making pronouncements. More than the average father, his word carries weight. People defer to him. Teachers used to hold that kind of space too, traditionally in […]
FMM 7 7 17 Soul Ajar
“The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.” ~ Emily Dickinson. My mother once got prayed against. In an open church. By Deacon Morris. I have noticed that I tend to write more stories of my mother than my father. But perhaps it is because if you know my father, you are […]
FMM 6 30 17 My White Life
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”~Joseph Campbell. I learned to ‘roll flour’ (make dumplings) at Beulah School All Age School, in Jamaica. The girls (no boys) had to help out in the kitchen, taking it in turns to do our part. The technique wasn’t too strange to me. I was an […]
FMM 6 10 17 Fret not, nor fear
“In a time of destruction, create something.”~Maxine Hong Kingston. I have never been fond of scary movies. I prefer to escape into a light comedy, to be amused for a while. I remember accompanying a friend to watch a couple of movies that were outside of my comfort zone (Jaws, and Carrie). For her punishment […]
FMM 5 26 17 Which Path?
“Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.”~Viktor E. Frankl. I am a Mancunian by birth. That means that I know that the correct pronunciation of the city’s name is Manchister, with the emphasis on the first syllable. I lived there until I was […]
FMM 3 17 17 I’m an Alien
“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 […]
FMM 23 16 Meditation on the Moon
“There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.”~George Carlin. I have no definitive memory of when I saw my first full moon. Spending my first seven years mostly in a city was one factor. Even when we went on vacation to the less light polluted seaside, I have no recollection of […]
FMM 11 25 16 Trailblazers!
“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.”~Gail Sheehy. In 2006, on a trip to the beautiful YS Falls in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, I was invited to take a chance, to take a leap of faith, to branch out. Zip-lining. I was tempted but. Perhaps it was too much money (a friend offered to […]
FMM 11 18 16 Chant a Psalm
“Just living is not enough…one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”~Hans Christian Andersen. My father was chaplain and teacher of Bible Knowledge at a high school in the heart of Jamaica. Since the school was founded under the ‘auspices’ of a Christian School, the subject was not Religious Knowledge. There was no […]
FMM 11 11 16 Remembrance
“In the end we will remember, not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”~ Martin Luther King, Jr. There was a card game we used to play when I was young; it was a simple game of pairing cards. But the deck was spread out (face down) on a table, and […]
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