Let Me Just Get This Out . . .

Why does it seem that when folk run afoul of the law the world over, there is a tendency to dredge up any remote Caribbean (especially Jamaican) link they may have and offer it up as a subtle explanation for their bad behaviour, even to the point of being plain ridiculous?

A European article came across my radar that had to do with a pregnant 31 year-old European citizen - a drug addict - who is being charged with assault. It was brought to my attention because she is purportedly 'half-Jamaican'. Who edits and overlooks this type of nonsense?  (I did not read the article in its entirety and will not link to it, because some journalists fail to understand that when you place a letter ahead of a certain number of asterisks it still counts as a swear word. Could we just say the defendant swore at the police officers? Does anyone really need to know the details of the defendants tirade? I digress... moving on...)

The journalist in question was clearly oblivious to the fact that there is no race of people called Jamaican....

•  The word Jamaican refers to nationality, not ethnicity.
•  Jamaicans can be of Caucasian, Oriental, Indian or African descent. There is, therefore, no particular skin tone or behaviour pattern that can be attributed to all Jamaicans.

'Bi-racial', I could understand..... but what on earth is a 'half-Jamaican'?  More importantly, would it have been mentioned if the defendant was an outstanding citizen? Maybe  in our local papers but nowhere else.

It is an inescapable fact that my country has a problem with crime, but the criminals are not in the majority, and it irks me that there are journalists who seize upon any opportunity to  use the Jamaican link for underhanded reasons. *side eye*

'Fun' Facts:

• I am not a fan of reggae music, but I am Jamaican.
• I do not drink alcohol, smoke marijuana, or wear dreadlocks, and I am a bona fide Jamaican.
• Patois (pronounced pat-wa), the native dialect, is not my first language. I learnt it in passing during early social interaction.... but I am Jamaican.
• The Queen's English is my first language (There is no such thing as Jamaican English). It is the language my parents, schoolteachers, and Sunday School teachers spoke, and yes... they were all Jamaican.
• I do not dabble in Kumina, or anything remotely related to spiritism, but my maternal grandmother was a Maroon..... I am a Jamaican.
• Scottish and German roots are a part of my ancestry, but I am a Jamaican.

Like every other Jamaican before me, I am a Jamaican because of my citizenship, and nothing more.

It is not possible to be half-Jamaican. You are either a citizen (former or present), or you are not.  If your grandfather's uncle's wife had parents whose grandparents might have held Jamaican citizenship, you are neither half, quarter or any other kind of Jamaican.

One love,

Monday Musings . . . on Thursday: Don't 'Wing It'!

I have something to show you.....

Can you see the widely divergent lines of stitching? (Maybe 'widely divergent' is overstating it a bit, but I like the sound of it. Haha!) Take a closer look while I tell you the story of how this came to be.....

I unexpectedly won a quilting giveaway on YouTube during the final week of March (Never mind the fact that my prize fabric appears to have gotten lost in transit. That's not the point...). If your face just took on a quizzical appearance and you uttered something along the line of "I didn't know you did quilting...", you are not alone.  I did not know that I did quilting either, but - in the spirit of gratitude to the young woman who hosted the give-away  which did not require me to jump through any hoops or to subscribe to sites that I had no desire to be subscribed to - I decided that it would make sense to practice on a small scale while awaiting the prize.

I figured that if this exercise was going to cost me fabric and interfacing from my stash, it might as well be usable .. so I settled on a quilted placemat/mug rug for SJ and got to work. Once I entered the straight-line quilting phase, I decided that - since this was practice work - I could just 'wing it' rather than take more time to measure and mark out the lines I wanted.  I know you can already see where this is going.....

The third line of stitching in, I realised I was way off base but - instead of ripping my stitches out - I told myself that I would do better with each succeeding line of stitching....

Here's the thing..... In the absence of an accurate guide, my eyes naturally drifted toward the nearest line of stitching and I made my 'adjustments' accordingly. One adjustment led to another and - in the final analysis  - not one line matched the ideal that I had envisioned.

This experience prompted me to reflect on our human tendency to compare ourselves to others who journey with us on the Christian path.  When we neglect the Divine Guide or Plumbline that has been given to us in the Word of God, the only thing left to do is to look to those whom we assume are 'reasonably Christian', but it is the Word that is to be 'the lamp unto our feet'... not the church leaders or other members (pious though they may be) for, if we cannot know our own hearts (Jeremiah 17:9), how can we hope to know theirs? Human beings are inherently prone to sinfulness and error, so we must - like the Bereans (Acts 17:11) -  search the scriptures daily to see whether the things which are taught and practised are indeed as others say they are.

If we attempt to walk in the darkness of this world without the benefit of our Divine Light, should we then wonder why our spiritual feet seem to have no sense of direction? Further, if we fail to recognize the error of our ways, and proceed to train our children in our own way - where Bible study and communion with God is secondary to everything else - would there be a need for us to wonder why their missteps look a lot like ours?

Paul, writing under inspiration to the Ephesian church, says:  "..... even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. ~Ephesians 5:25-27 If God has designed His Word to be an agent of cleansing and sanctification and we walk in its light, we cannot hope to achieve upward/forward mobility in the Christian life by neglecting it. We would not wash our clothes with soap and hang them out to dry without the final rinse.... so we should not attempt to get by on the basis of our busy-ness with church work, ministry, community service, or any other good work. All our right-doing amounts to filthy rags in God's eyes (Isaiah 64:6), and only in Christ can we come up to the Divine ideal.

The Word of God is our only acceptable Guide, and God makes no allowance for 'winging it' on the Christian path. We must follow Christ as closely as possible in order to become as nearly like Him in character as we can possibly hope to be - always by His grace - and we can only know what, where, and how to follow if we make a habit of immersing ourselves in the Word of God .

The patriarchs built altars from rocks as reminder to the next generation of how God led them..... Maybe a quilted placemat can be a contemporary version? At any rate, the mat will remain as it is - a feeble attempt to keep this lesson before my eyes.

May God help me to be faithful in taking time for the consistent daily study of His Word.... I need that washing....

Forward march!

Hydrocortisone . . . My Onceuponafriend

Over a decade ago, when I had my first run-in with eczema/dermatitis that affected my face and scalp, my dermatologist handed me a repeat prescription for a pharmaceutical mixture that had - as its main ingredient - hydrocortisone at a 2% concentration. I thought it was the most fabulous thing since sliced bread...

At a later visit, when my condition had been greatly improved, she advised that if I got another flare-up, (which was likely because it was determined that the root cause was hormonal) using the OTC hydrocortisone cream before it got really bad would be enough to keep it under control. I was meant to return if that did not work.

Side note: I have never purchased a tube of this stuff that had a instruction sheet/warning label in the box. In light of what I know now, that doesn't even seem normal.

There is an old Jamaican saying: "Man weh follow awdas (orders) cyaan wrong." Well, I don't know about that....

There came a time when the OTC cream no longer worked - my skin seemed hypersensitive to even the laundry detergent I had used for years, and the breakout did not miraculously disappear - so I decided to do a bit of Internet research before booking an appointment.

My Internet digging  was so comprehensive that it would be impossible to find the time to compile it all in this space, but typing 'dermatitis', 'hydrocortisone effects', or your specific symptoms (e.g. facial skin hypersensitivity), into  Google Search will turn up more than any of us would really want to know. I would advise that you stick to reputable medical sites, as opposed to sites that exist only to get you to purchase some modern-day version of snake oil.

It is sufficient to say that  I quickly realised the error of my ways, and not being one to waste valuable time and tears on spilt milk, or the 'If-only-I-had-known' mantra..... I set about trying to find possible solutions. In the interest of time, I will give a brief outline of what is working and what did not:

• Evening Primrose Oil - I had tried this some time ago for PMS and it had been totally useless, but - on the advice of a natural health practitioner - I tried it again, because it is supposedly used as a cure for several forms of dermatitis. After a month of taking this nonsense, I have concluded that it if this thing works for someone... that someone is definitely not me. A grand waste of time and money.
• Aloe Vera - This is not the stuff in the bottle at the health food store, but the actual plant. I peel a small portion of the leaf for each use and apply the gel to my face and neck. It stops itching on contact, calms any flare-up, and the smell disappears when it dries. This is a winner.
• Flax Seeds (ground) - An oldie but goodie.  This has been added to cereal, smoothies, and every single baked good that comes forth from our oven for several years... for Omega-3 fatty acid content.
• Water - I beefed up my water intake and - now that the thermometer has crept up past 80 degrees Farenheit - I find myself drinking more than a gallon of plain water per day just to stay hydrated. I discovered - as a side effect - that my ankles are no longer getting swollen (Just so you know, I have no kidney issues... I know at least one person is bound to think it. ;) ). Most folk will tell you that if you have a tendency to retain fluid around the ankles, increasing your water intake is a bad idea. Well, my ankles disagree. Sending the body into dehydration mode is a green light for the system to attempt to put every last bit of fluid into storage.... it's all about balance. Skipping breakfast and initiating starvation mode has a similar effect too. 
• Juices/smoothie - Not much to say here...... Carrots, papaya, or mango (for Vitamin A content, and not all at the same time), as well as the green smoothie I mentioned in the previous post.
• Consistency in taking my Vitamin C and E supplements. I hate swallowing anything that is not literal food, so I have to keep the supplements out on the dresser right before the mirror. Yes, when I look in the mirror, there is no forgetting to take them... trust me on that one. (Out of love for my readers, I will not post photos. You're welcome).
• Exercise - Another oldie but goodie that has come back to the fore as a part of my overall wellness plan.... I can sit and mope or I can move forward, and I aim to do the latter.

Processed foods with unrecognisable or highly questionable ingredients/preservatives had already been cut from my diet, so that makes the long road stretched out before me a whole lot more bearable.

Will I still be making an appointment to see the dermatologist? At this point, the honest answer is 'I don't know.' The scarring is the only thing that would prompt me to  go, but I fear my skin is still too sensitive to withstand any type of 'peel' she could drum up.  I cover it as much as possible when I need to go out, and I find that process to be irritating as well.

In all of this, I am thankful because I am acutely aware that the results could have been much worse. God's faithfulness is constant regardless of the circumstances, and I look forward with eager anticipation to a day when He will make all things new.... skin and all. :)

Blessings,

When You're The Mother of a Male Child . . .

..... things like this may sometimes take place:

"Mom his feet feel so soft!"

That I managed to remain vertical without being completely grossed out, while having a discussion about false feet and such - was no small miracle. You have no idea.....

I am still 5 feet 5 inches tall, but I believe I am still growing - by God's grace - in all the ways that matter. Thank you, Jesus.

Blessings,