Tag Archives: resilience
FMM 6 20 2025 Amplifying Hope
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” ~ Desmond Tutu. My thoughts have been on my childhood a lot recently. Ever since I was invited to be the guest speaker at my old primary (elementary in the US) school’s graduation, I have been reminiscing about those days […]
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 7 5 2024 Off Grid, Off your Head?
“Vows made in storms are forgotten in calm.” ~ Thomas Fuller. I have no recollection of my first severe weather event. Growing up first in the UK, in Manchester, rain was an ever present fact of life. But it was mostly the persistent, miserable drizzle kind of rain, raindrops so fine they could be more […]
FMM 3 27 2020 No Time for Platitudes
“A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.” ~ Albert Camus. This week I saw a headline that said that New York women were going to have to give birth alone. It was not as stark as it sounded. It wasn’t that the poor women were going to have to squat […]
FMM 8 30 19 Trains and Boats and Planes
“You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.” ~ Golda Meir. In 1963, the long journey across the Atlantic from the UK to Jamaica began with a long train ride from the north of England all the way down to the south coast. As the youngest in the family, my responsibilities were few, so […]
FMM 9 22 17 Dry Wit
“Everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to somebody else.”~ Will Rogers. My father had a strange sense of humor. His jokes would often be met with a split second of silence, before the audience, whether in church, the classroom, or the huge assembly hall where as chaplain he would lead morning devotions each […]
FMM 9 15 17 Stripped Bare
“Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind the stronger the trees.” ~ Thomas S. Monson. I traveled to Jamaica with my family in 1963, sailing on the SS Ascania. Our journey was extended by several days, as we had to observe protocol, and allow a killer to exit the Caribbean before […]
FMM 9 8 17 Silencing Critics
“We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.”~ Carl Jung. To those of us who grew up trying to please others, the opinion of others matters far too much. Children whose parents have a particular standing in the community (here I am thinking of parsons and teachers) grow up […]
FMM 8 4 17 The Resilient Spirit
“Faith minus vulnerability and mystery equals extremism. If you’ve got all the answers, then don’t call what you do ‘faith.’”~ Brene Brown. I could never handle being teased as a child. Maybe it was because I was the youngest, first of five, then later of six. And of course, those who love to tease do […]
FMM 4 1 16 Forged in Fire
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”~Ernest Hemingway. My mother once asked in wonderment: “How did I raise such strong women?” The irony of that question lay in the fact that she did not see herself as a strong woman. When I replied that we had her example to […]
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