Author: Simone

“To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one-another, and to preserve and cherish that Pale Blue Dot: The only home we’ve ever known.”

Professor Carl Edward Sagan

Music, no matter where it comes from has the power to heal and bring comfort. Sometimes it reminds us how strong we need to be. When we feel ourselves slipping too far down the rabbit hole, let us brace ourselves and hold on. We cannot retreat into the unknown because that is not where we were meant to be. For each of us we must find our way, but we can take heart because along the way the right people will be there to make the journey easier. There will also be sweet music to replace your sorrows. And if we listen closely, a comforting voice to remind you that we will make it…

  The Road of the Dread


That dey road no pave
like any other black-face road
it no have no definite color
and it fence two side
with live barbwire.

And no look fi no milepost
fi measure yu walking
and no tek no stone as
dead or familiar

for sometime you pass a ting
you know as . . . call it stone again
and is a snake ready fi squeeze yu
kill yu
or is a dead man tek him
possessions tease yu.
Then the place dem yu feel
is resting place because time
before that yu welcome like rain,
go dey again?
bad dawg, bad face tun fi drive yu underground
wey yu no have no light fi walk
and yu find sey that many yu meet who sey
them understand
is only from dem mout dem talk.
One good ting though, that same treatment
mek yu walk untold distance
for to continue yu have fe walk far
away from the wicked.

Pan dis same road ya sista
sometime yu drink yu salt sweat fi water
for yu sure sey at least dat no pisen,
and bread? yu picture it and chew it accordingly
and some time yu surprise fi know how dat full
man belly.

Some day no have no definite color
no beginning and no ending, it just name day
or night as how yu feel fi call it.

Den why I tread it brother?
well mek I tell yu bout the day dem
when the father send some little bird
that swallow flute fi trill me
and when him instruct the sun fi smile pan me first.
And the sky calm like sea when it sleep
and a breeze like a laugh follow mi.
Or the man find a stream that pure like baby mind
and the water ease down yu throat
and quiet yu inside.

And better still when yu meet another traveler
who have flour and yu have water and man and man
make bread together.
And dem time dey the road run straight and sure
like a young horse that cant tire
and yu catch a glimpse of the end
through the water in yu eye
I wont tell yu what I spy
but is fi dat alone I tread this road.

Lorna Goodison, Selected Poems, University of Michigan
Press, 1993.

“The Peace of Wild Things”

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

― Wendell Berry, The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry

When the world had gotten too much and you cannot function because it has failed you or because your body had betrayed you, reach for peace. Shut out the world of man and enter into your world of peace. Never stay there forever, but go there when you need it the most. Find your peace and protect it at all cost…

It’s not the honors and not the titles and not the power that is of ultimate importance. It’s what resides inside.

Fred Rogers

Are you at the bottom or the top? Are you “poor” or “rich”? “Hot” or “not”? Are you a who or a what?

Many people can only operate based on categories, popular assumptions or hashtags. In other words, titles and positions matter a great deal to many, but we never think about how dehumanizing they can be. We all know of at least one person who at one point was an easy going human, who got along with everyone and wasn’t a problem. Until they get that title. Then, that same mild mannered human vanishes as the title arrives; apparently to be practicing for a new transformers movie, they become monsters. Suddenly they are a thorn in EVERYONE’S side and no one wants to be around them. They appear to have little compassion and have totally ignored the fact that the last time we checked, the world does not revolve around them and what they want. They take it as their right to make unrealistic demands and ensure that they always put others in “their place”. After all they have a title to keep up. So, they gather their minions – poor things they don’t know they are disposable until they are disposed of – and they enact terrorist acts on any they deem deserving. They become something to be despised and ridiculed – when they are not around that is.

But they forget that that title, position and power are transient, lasting until someone else comes along or they are no longer useful in the grand scheme of things. Some forget that a title is not a birthright and even if it is, its value can diminish, like anything else. It’s sad to know that some people place more importance in the titles they acquire than in the lives they encounter. It’s both sad and ironic though, because their position is a precarious one; easier to topple the higher they go. For persons who want to be leaders, do they consider that it’s about the contribution you make and not the fact that you have achieved a title. When we interact with others in the capacity of a title, that person should feel inspired not frustrated and demotivated. Being human to all not just those you think are valuable to you, is what you need to take with you when you get that title. In others words, your title should not define you but you must define the title that you have. Enter with your humanity and do not kick it off at the door. Who you are should not be contingent on the position you hold and what you want from others.

Having a title or titles is great, if that matters to you. But the title that you are given will not make you more desirable, more respected or more loved –not for real for real. How you treat others and the legacy you leave is what determines who you are. Any title you get says more about what you are but underneath the mask of that title is who you are. And that is what people will remember. After all, what is the title without the person to assume it?

Now this is a departure to a lighter side of a serious matter. There is a very good message here, so stick around a bit. Now I can remember one of the rituals that my grandmother performed; every Wednesday and Saturday was to purchase a lotto ticket. If yuh don’t have a ticket, yuh don’t have a chance! In every area of her life my grandmother was a very practical and responsible woman. She made sure she kept me and my grandfather in line. This was the only area that I questioned her sanity because she was faithful without gain. She NEVER won.

I thought of all the sweeties or chocolate or ice-cream, cakes – a mean any food you could think of – that that money could buy! On both days after the broadcast of the lotto program – immediately after – she would be somewhat despondent, and I thought, “yes she not going to waste her money on no more lotto ticket”. But alas, even though she complained and grumbled that she “just a waste her money”, she would still fork it out to buy more. If yuh don’t have a ticket yuh don’t have a chance!

Her chance never came. She never won the millions that tempted so many to “tek a chance”. But I knew that my grandmother had good intentions. She wanted that money not to be rich -like many do – but to help everyone she could. I fear if she had won, most of it would have gone to family and friends who needed it and she would be again checking her ticket (s), Wednesdays and Saturdays to “tek her chance”. I came to believe, as I got older, that for her, it was more something to look forward to than something she actually thought she could win.

I was thinking recently that many of us have measured success at one point or another, or still do, by how much money someone has; and for many it’s how much money and stuff they have. It’s how they can use that money and those possessions to assert their power over the poor souls who just did not have the guts or fortune to make it big. Money is necessary in the world we live in, but it should never be our masters. We should never use it as the measuring stick of someone’s worth. It’s good to have money but it’s never good to make it your whole world.

But seriously if you won the lotto, what would you do..?

For as a man thinketh in his Heart so is he…

Proverbs 23:7

Most of us have experienced moments when we just cannot see the positive in anything. We know for a fact that we do not need to think this way but the devil on our shoulder just will not let us live! We create great tragedies of our lives and live as if the apocalypse is just around the corner. We stop acting and start thinking. We know all the verses that can motivate us to keep going and we read them and still act as if we are at the end. Our thinking depressed thoughts are slowly killing our dreams.

“All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts.”

― James Allen, As a Man Thinketh

We think about all the negative things that can happen if we move, because we have gotten too use to being that way. Persons jump between us and our self-destructive thoughts and encourage us, until they are blue, blue-black, purple, you name it, in the face. Nothing matters. No self-help book, visits to a counselor or well meaning friend can get us where we need to be. The only that can help, is a change in our thinking. We have to take the reigns and stop blaming others for why we are at the place we are. There are many persons who have faced unimaginable trauma and are not only survivors but have beaten the death sentence that comes with such events. While there stories are inspirational, don’t let that be your measuring stick. They have maneuvered life based on the circumstances they have had to deal with. Now act using what you have and create your own stories of triumph!

You will only get as far as you can see yourself, not based on someone else’s vision.

At the end of the day, no one will have the answers you need to get where you want to go and if they do, don’t listen! Their advice is really tailored to them not you. You want to move, move; don’t ask anyone if you should. If your leaving affects them in anyway, they will find all the points to talk you down from the things you really want to do. Because their vision does not align with you leaving just then; and after biting your ten figures thinking what to do and you stick around. At some point they may no longer want you around and guess what Ten years just rushed passed and you have changed into someone you did not want to become.

Not a good end at all!

Your thinking determines where you find yourself and how quickly you find yourself there. Do not allow the things and people around to think for you. Focus on your goal and go for it. Stop dreaming and start doing.