The lion queen

I don’t know where I got this cat thing! 😊 

But I always feel so at one with them, big cats or little cats. 

Maybe I was a cat in my past life. 

Seriously though, my first memory of this life is seeing cats all around my bedroom, and be they big cats or little cats,  I have always just wanted to cuddle them. 

Can you therefore imagine my absolute delight when I got the privilege of bottle-feeding a baby white tiger in Thailand?

From then, I lived for the day when I could do the same to a lion cub. 

It was not to be though. 

However, I did get the opportunity to take four lion cubs for a walk in Zambia, even holding their tales as we walked. 😊

And I got to caress their backs😊. 

I had to walk behind them though as the trainers say, if you go in front, they may think you are prey to be hunted.

These cubs have never been in the wild though. 

There were 2 females and 2 males from the same pride. They are around a year and a half old and will be exposed to strangers until they are three years old.

 Then they are retired and gradually rehabilitated to be with other animals in a secure environment. 

Their father didn’t like us though but I still loved him❤️😊

Yup, I finally made it to the 'big' catwalk 😊

Link; https://youtu.be/17z9wRtxOSM

Reflections on aging

As I believe in reincarnation, I have no great interest in too long a life this time around.

My fervent hope is that when I can no longer be independent, including driving myself around, I will quickly transition into the next life.

Not often, but occasionally, I do see some older people who are really doing well who make me rethink my messages sent to the universe. 

Many of them, very fit eighty-five and up, attend exercise classes at the Tamarac Senior Center which I frequent. I always try and seek out such persons to see if they will impart some little special secret on how to live a long, healthy life.

My latest role model did not come from via that route though.

A happy Violet Edwards trailed by her daughter Dr. Christine Edwards

Her name is Violet Edwards and like me, she is a Jamaican. But that is where the similarity ends, for this lady is 96 years old and has just graduated with her Associate Degree in Science and Liberal Arts and rumor has it that she plans to move towards getting the full Bachelors!

Only five women have ever been recorded anywhere in the world, as getting a college degree while in their nineties.

AND A JAMAICAN IS ONE!

Can you imagine still studying at age 96 and beyond? 

Thats's just so awesome!

According to my information, Ms. Edwards postponed her college studies when she was younger, to put her daughter through medical school.

That sacrifice has paid huge dividends, not only for her family also but for numerous families in Coral Springs and surrounding areas, where Dr. Edwards, a Perinatologist, has an invaluable practice.

Consul General Oliver Mair presents the plaque.

So, while the world languished and fretted over Covid and other distractions, Ms. Edwards had returned to her studies and at a ceremony in Parkland, Florida on Saturday 25^th June 2020, she was presented with a well deserved Proclamation by Oliver Mair, Jamaica’s Consul General to Miami.

Many kudos to Ms. Violet Edwards, who attended Happy Grove High School in Portland, Jamaica, the parish of her birth.

And now she is giving back to young people in her country with a scholarship.

You can tell that keeping her mind active has had an astounding effect on her body also, for what part of this lady looks 96?

If I can look as young as she does and have the brilliant mind that she must have, I won’t grumble at all if I actually live to be 100!

MY TERRIBLE DIET

I am not moaning about my diet because I don't eat green vegetables and it has affected my health somehow.

No, I don't and it hasn't.

This rejection of vegetables was born from I was a child and we fed the greens to the animals then ate them. 

Processed greens you could call it.

However, I have for many years, occasionally rued the fact that it cannot be civilized to be eating warm-blooded animals. 

This thought was again recently reinforced when I visited a livestock farm in St. Elizabeth.  For there was a herd of some of the most peaceful group of cows I have ever seen, tranquility roaming as they fed. Then and there I felt so bad about constantly eating members of their family that once again I made a silent promise to myself to stop eating beef. 

I think that latest promise only survived for a few days.

Maybe it is my admiration for the Buddist religion that so often directs my thoughts along these lines. For they are totally opposed to killing anything to satisfy the lust for food. But poor me, my habits are so deeply ingrained that I cannot even contemplate adopting such an admirable lifestyle.  So I comfort myself that I will keep that promise when I reincarnate.

I have often varied it slightly by saying I will shun warm-blooded animals, as in this life I have no problem eating reptiles with great relish, convinced of course that if I don't eat them first they will probably eat me! That's why I so enjoyed the crocodile tail I had in Cambodia.

But no Buddhist would ever kill even reptiles so I guess I will have to adopt the Kenyan philosophy that dictates that even dangerous animals have to preserved for prosperity, especially to educate generations to come.

I only returned to this annoying trend of thought this morning, for as I went for my regular walk, I was bitten by an insect. I don't know what it was but it itched like hell and for quite a long time too.

That's when it occurred to me that those who are promoting the eating of insects are on the right track. For what purpose do most insects serve except to create destruction and discomfort for the human race?

Further, in Asia, they have developed the tastiest methods of cooking these pests and they are also very nutritious to boot. 

Look at what Science Direct says;

"From a nutritional point of view, insects have significant protein content. It varies from 20 to 76% of dry matter depending on the type and development stage of the insect. Fat content variability is large (2–50% of dry matter) and depends on many factors. Total polyunsaturated fatty acids' content may be up to 70% of total fatty acids. Carbohydrates are represented mainly by chitin, whose content ranges between 2.7 mg and 49.8 mg per kg of fresh matter. Some species of edible insects contain a reasonable amount of minerals (K, Na, Ca, Cu, Fe, Zn, Mn and P) as well as vitamins such as B group vitamins, vitamins A, D, E, K, and C. "

So weh yu seh?

Unfortunately, I am so old and stuck in my ways, that I have to postpone my nutritional transition until the next life!

169) Joan Williams, author - YouTube

REFLECTIONS ON RELIGION

 I HATE RELIGION. 

Every time I say that, I get lots of glares then someone accuses me of being an atheist!

Atheist? Good God, in my book it takes a great deal of arrogance to be an atheist, for just looking around at this planet not to mention the universe of which we know so little, tells me that there has to be a much greater creative force than humans will ever be able to understand.

So yes, I believe in a much greater creative force than humans, and being human, I too have a natural instinct to worship it. 

Nothing wrong with that I suspect.

My dislike for religion therefore has nothing to do with a belief in God by whatever name. It has  to do with the distorted messages religions send  and the chaos and bloodshed they leave behind as they try to confuse people and yes, TO MAKE MONEY.

For with religion comes people who claim that they and they alone know the truth about everything.

I grew up in a Christian home, where Jesus, the bible etc. were everything and could never be doubted. The ritual was, church as many times as possible during the week and up to three times on Sundays. Added to that, there were nightly prayers and it was drummed into our heads that we should pray to God for everything. 

Well I have a friend who grew up in those identical circumstances and some years ago he told me he was an atheist. When I asked why, he told me that when he was a teenager and taking his Senior Cambridge exams (yes, he is close to 80, for that exam was many decades ago!) he prayed to God every night to let him pass. 

WELL HE FAILED,. 😅

So the next year he repeated the exam, did not beg God for anything and studied fiercely.

HE PASSED.

So, he tells me, from then he decided that he had to rely only on himself to succeed and he and his family  have indeed succeeded immensely.

Well I am not going that far, but I too definitely stopped praying to beg for anything for decades now. WHAT I DO EVERYDAY THOUGH, IS TO THANK HER FOR EVERYTHING.  

No begging only gratitude and I really feel good about it!

But back to religion. 

Of all the established religions, I dislike Christianly the most. 

Maybe it's because that is the religion I know the most about or maybe its because just about everyone I know, claims to be a Christian, and I find most Christians to be such despicable people. 

As to white evangelists, they seem to be really terrible people. I say seem, as I am not aware of ever having met any, but when I hear what their leaders say and read what adherents write, I really cringe. 

However, having grown up in the Christian church, I still enjoy Christian music and play it often.

In fact, its listening to this one that motivated me to write this article!

I liked it so much that I even posted it on Facebook, dedicating it to my Christian friends, during holy week.

However, while I love the music, the boring thought of flying around during the after-life, while drinking milk and honey all day, is enough to send me flying! That's almost as unattractive a thought as being one of the 70 virgins waiting around for some devout Muslim man to come and claim me as a prize.😟

The bible too drives me crazy and most times when I hear quotations, my response rangers from laughter to downright anger. A really laughable one is Solomon having 700 wives and an example of the ones that set me off are the misogynistic sections starting from the insult that I was created from a man's rib. 

Over the years, because of my interest in, especially, the after life, I have looked at many religions but the only one I think I could ever get involved with when I reincarnate, is Buddhism.

My attraction to the Buddhists comes from the fact that they are the most peaceful religion, for they certainly don't believe in or practice killing people to convert them!

My only problem, is that they are so peaceful and against shedding blood, that they are vegans.

Having spent so many decades reveling in the delicious meats, I could never at this point, stomach the thought of living without meat in this life.

So every time I see a live animal, I feel so badly that I promise it that I will become a vegan in my next life, for in this one, I am just so far gone that I can't even find the will to change!

Lets see how that pans out!

(169) Joan Williams, author - YouTube

Michale Jackson

I watched Michael Jackson's farewell yesterday with sadness and absolute awe. For while I had always liked his music, I did feel sorry for him as a person who had been deprived of his youth and was now as an adult doing all sorts of weird things as he sought to recapture the past.

I had forgotten that he was a person. So when Paris said goodbye to him and described him as the best father, I was speechless and overcome with emotion. And when other speakers pointed out how he had opened the doors for blacks in every area eg. Tiger Woods, it is something that I would never have considered on my own accord, since in my books he had spent his entire life striving to become white and develop caucasian features.

The most pleasant reminder I got from the farewell was the outlining of his absolute generosity of spirit. For example, how he sought to use his immense talents to raise funds for the sick and hungry, long before "Live Aid" was conceptualised.This generosity of spirit was earlier revealed just after his untimely death when his will was found and it was announced that he had left 40% of his estate to his children, 49% to his mother and 20% to charity.

He was indeed a wonderful person but like all of us humans, he had an Achilles heel. I never bought the stories that he was a peodophile but considered him only and unfortunate individual wh0 was so mixed up because he was robbed of his youth, that it affected him mentally.

As one who believes in reincarnation, I am sure his next life will be extremely happy, for he must have earned an abundance of good karma .