How do you practice self-care?

The list is huge, so this query can be answered daily for a long time without giving up my privacy; what I eat, drink, binge on, my addictions, and things that make me sneeze

There is so much advice flying around the world that it is hard to duck.  Church, school, the apparatus of state and media managers all think they can drive people who are not ailing to the “hospital” and convince them that they are sick.  They have a rack of remedies ready to sell to the victim, who may not be aware that the remedy is a Band-Aid they will be expected to buy for the foreseeable future.

So, back to my self-care.  I have lived long enough to know that whether I am comfortable or uncomfortable I need to remember to give neither condition my full attention.  Things I can do nothing about do not threaten me.   I have been taught by great and wise ancestors to take leaps of faith in the  direction opposite to popular or urgent advice.

List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?

I’m going to leave the Bible out of this response because it is much more than “book”.

• George Orwell’s Animal Farm,
• Haile Selassie I University Press’ Utterances of His Imperial Majesty
• Brevard Child’s Biblical Theology

The first for opening my eyes (in a very creative way) to society’s lies and justice game; the second for steering me away from a shallow kind of Rastafarianism, and the third for putting the genuine values of the two divisions of the Holy Bible into a healthy perspective.

How do you know when it’s time to unplug? What do you do to make it happen?

The signal to unplug usually comes when the digital world is swamped with the rabbit holes of the algorithms of the movers and shakers of human consciousness, or when the news cycle is tanking on an increasingly popular  “first this”, “first that” track,  or pouring out historic nonsense.

0ne strategy is I park my phone and PC, pick up my guitar, a pencil, paper, and an eraser.  I read, meditate and write.  This can last for a whole day or a few hours.

What jobs have you had?

Electrical technician, school teacher (elementary, high), shipping and receiving, library assistant, warehousing,  factory worker, social services worker, vocational and residential counsellor, professor of theology, union president.

What are you good at?

What I do well is a short list:  serving others with a joyful attitude, songwriting, writing, and biblical interpretation.  The order indicates my confidence. 

What does “having it all” mean to you? Is it attainable?

Everybody paint the ceiling with all the things we have not bee.  Brush in all the things we have not done or seen. Have a feeling for the one whose feet has been through the fir. Let the have not have his one desire.  

So go the words of a song – Have Not –  by yours truly and his son.

I am not so naive to think that having it all amounts to possessing every gadget, every invention, every bit of expertise there is and so on.  My spiritual vision has taught me that everything I see is mine, not that I actually own them, but they are within reach, with one distinct roadblock. Not enough time.  Life’s breath will pass before I get to know them – have an intimate relationship with everything I can see –  and yet they are mine.  So having it all is basically enjoying curiosity’s limp, hike, train, flight and levitation.  Yes.

How do you balance work and home life?

Work is home, and home is my favourite work.  Like a lot of people who, due to COVID-19, work from home, I work from home, and all other duties are equally pleasurable, with home inevitably tacked on.  I do not know where work begins and life is like a circle.  Is that retirement?

What’s the oldest things you’re wearing today?

Pure selfishness; interest in me and myself.  Maybe I should be talking about shoes, shirts, underwear, rings and necklaces.  Ya think?  The oldest thing I am wearing first appeared the moment I was born.  It made me wail at the top of my voice, “Pay attention to me!”  “Hey, momma, give me that breast.  I want milk.  I’m cold; warm we up”.

There!  As old as I am.