Invest in friendship and you will never lose your soul — a best friend from five decades ago, a school reunion, determined to find me she networked, never shirked in her quest. we connected again and I am blessed we carry on the conversation as if it were yesterday we last spoke. true friends never let you down, stick with you…

We need to stay vigilant and report those spreading misinformation — There’s an enormous difference between expressing a different opinion on a topic and spreading outright lies and misinformation. I had occasion to witness this when I read an article in a local online news outlet in South Africa about an anonymous publication here on Medium spreading misinformation about the assassination…

Nothing else matters — what once was found then lost — love, friendship, marriage, careers and glass ceilings — cost me nothing. the lessons learned were priceless. (I cannot lose what I never had — a mother’s love.) in younger days I dreamed in songs composed but never sung to more than groups of…

A poem — I can see the sunlight streaming through my window dear God, it’s such a lovely day can I keep it with me please don’t let it leave me all I really want to do is play I hear a ringing somebody singing are the sounds inside my head? is this…

Do not allow that oxymoron to confuse you! — If you’re not a Pink Floyd fan, I’ll assume you’re not a baby boomer. If you’re a younger fan, kudos to you for agreeing with my opinion, being older and wiser, that The Dark Side of the Moon is the best album Pink Floyd ever produced. Their album hit the…

The cure is to write ludicrous limericks — There was an old lady who didn’t know where She’d put the damn item, so sure it was there But she couldn’t find it Felt so absent-minded Unsteady and ready to pull out her hair She cursed and she swore at her obstinate brain For choking her memory, energy drained…

Another reason to be a proud South African! — I’m over the moon that Pretty Yende will sing at the coronation on 6 May at Westminster Abbey in London. I often dwell too much on the ills of our country and write about them, forgetting to celebrate the good news. I’m changing tack towards joy today. Although the New…

A journey from night into day — my motivation tumbles into wells of despair I scramble — want to climb the stairs but cannot find them heart stuck in the basement will not open hardly coping I want to breathe words but they desert me power cuts — a daily fixture — slice through my life projects…

I’ll sit on the fence and remain undecided — “The seasons they go round and round”, Joni Mitchell sings in The Circle Game. Where do I begin? Perhaps where I began in spring. Maybe I should start in autumn, the season in which I’ve celebrated my birthday for over sixty years? No, it’s not a riddle. I was born…