My mother’s smell is the last thing I embrace as I take my excited but weary self off to bed. She’s been in the kitchen all night preparing food for the next day. My home is nothing but Christmas perfection! My mother reigns supreme at creating ambiance. The tree is stunning and the presents at its base come out at least four feet because of our large family of nine persons. Christmas carols play continuously on the stereo.

I’ve just finished watching “Scrooge” on the TV with my older brothers, and although it scares me so, I love it annually. I make my way through the kitchen and into the family room, which is dimly lit to show the tree and lights around the windows. The outside cold is unfelt by me in my cozy home of family memories. I walk past the candy tree – a fantastic favorite each year...

When I moved to The Bahamas from Canada I knew very little of pageants other than Miss World or Miss Universe.  Through my work with TheBahamasWeekly.com and with the help of social media, I quickly became familiar with the many pageants going on in The Bahamas. I learned that through these pageants the Bahamian queens were able to go off to international locations to compete globally, so therefore pageantry was not only rampant in The Bahamas, but more-so world-wide.

My first thought was that The Bahamas had way too many pageants, and I felt pageantry in general were an exploit of women. I felt pageants featuring young girls wearing makeup and heels were simply uncalled for...

This was how my family felt (with our four children, 2, 4, 6, and 9 years) when we moved to Grand Bahama Island.

Raised in a large family and from a mother that was always involved in community, whether it was assisting at her church or our schools, teaching catechism, or dressing up as Santa and driving on a skidoo over snow on her own to deliver gifts to poor children, I come from a background of giving back to those in need...

Many times I've walked the beautiful beaches on Grand Bahama I would often think about the island’s first people. The Lucayan Indians must have certainly thrived in harmony and communion with nature, as it is such a wonderful place to live, with resources from the ocean and the varied eco-systems to sustain their lives adequately.

The coming of the explorers from Europe, namely Christopher Columbus, must have indeed been a shock to the Lucayans.  It is still unknown as to how they were greeted by Columbus, but today there are no Lucayan Indians to pass on such stories, and we can only assume that Columbus annihilated the Lucayan Indians, as he went on to do with so many other native tribes of North America...

Every Year I list my accomplishments. I suggest you try it as you will be amazed at what you have done in one year, and then I write my goals for the New Year. I make them as detailed as possible with a target date for completion, and then I do my best to not guilt trip myself if I don't make them all.  

One year an idea came to my mind, and so I took a piece of poster paper and placed it up in a common area of our home.   I wrote in big letters at the top of it, “I am thankful for…” and left a black marker there for anyone to use. I added a couple words straight away myself. I’ve enjoyed walking past this poster each day as my four children add what they are grateful for onto the paper.   Some things surprise me, but they all make me smile. Life is good!

We usually take a few minutes during our Thanksgiving dinner to state out loud around the table what we are thankful for.  It brings meaning to eating so abundantly and makes us remember the less fortunate, family, and friends and what life is truly about.

But Thanksgiving is just one day, and we can give thanks any day of the year...

On my morning run I passed by two workers from Sanitation Services along the road collecting trash that had been tossed, likely out of windows of passing vehicles. How lucky we are to have these men who clean up after us! I call out to them, “Hey you are doing a great job!”, and they look up and smile. I keep on my pace thinking that this job should not be necessary, all but perhaps once a year. Are we now dependent on these workers to clean up after us? Does it reduce the garbage and promote the tossing?

In many countries it is against the law to litter. Large fines are the outcome. Living on an island the trash can only remain here with us, or worse make its way into our ocean, and head off perhaps to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Luckily we have a great waste receptacle called, Sanitation Services. I toured their Pine Ridge Landfill facility when I first moved here with my children. It is quite advanced, and I’d encourage each and every school to tour their local garbage management facility in order to educate our youth about ecology and the responsibility each of us have to keep our home, island, world clean...

A new year is upon us, and it is usually that time of year to reflect on where we we are at in our lives. Many love to take this time to create their resolutions for the coming year, while pessimists may say, "What is the point? You are only going to stop doing them anyhow...!"

I feel that IF soooo many people are taking time to go inward, reflect, and attempt to make change, that this time of year must be a positive one for the entire planet. It is said that 'thought has energy'. If millions are thinking to make change, do good, commit to self and others, than a positive shift must certainly be eminent each year at this time...

We have heard it so many times….”Competition is Healthy”.

Where would Coke be without Pepsi? McDonalds without Wendy’s? Stop and please think about it….and then applaud competition with me!

Our competition can make us who we are today. Competition gives us something to ‘model’ after and purpose to strive to do better. You may be reading this and rattling your head over some stiff competition in your life…

“Pusssssht…..pussssht…..pussssht” came into my dreams.

“What is that?”  I thought as I rolled over still half asleep in my rod iron bed.

That sound again, “Pusssssht”.

I quickly concentrated on the dream I was having. No, it was not in my dream… that sound was an awake sound.

“Pusssht..” I heard again.

Then I thought I heard people talking. I opened my eyes and looked at my clock. It was 6:45am. It was a summer holiday Saturday in my home when I was about twelve years old.   We lived on an acreage on the top of a hill, which overlooked the beautiful Sturgeon Valley...  

Walking the beach one day I was shocked at the myriad of colourful litter I found washed up on the shore. I walk the beach almost every day, so I am used to seeing litter along the way, but this day in particular it seemed as if the ocean gods had spit up as much as they could find from their bowels and said, "Here - back atcha" to us humans.

I had my camera along with me and started to take photos of the trash I came upon, as I was quite enthralled by the types of trash I was finding. So varied I began to wonder how such items got to be there.

My mind started to wander... and I decided to write about three specific pieces of trash I came upon. I turned each piece of trash into a short story. Here they are...