Author Archives: donalddeanchambers

“I feel sad. . .anxious . . . helpless.” Words that appeared in a WhatsApp message from a friend. A relative ends up, again, in hospital. It’s a mental illness, a family’s cross, an unbearable cross. The cross of mental illness is too heavy. The victim falls to the ground. She can’t bear the struggleContinue reading “Helplessness”

It’s the dry season.  It’s hot, humid, and hazy. Plants wilting. Birds lethargic. Humans move in slow motion. Creation ‘badly’ thirsts.  It’s also Covid time. There’s dryness and emptiness – no physical touch, no gathering, no liming. We are thirsting, thirsting for human touch, face to face conversation, group fraternity.  Like a dear that thirstsContinue reading “Patient Waiting”

I stand at the edge of a cliff. With the eyes of an indigenous woman basking in the warmth and stillness of the morning, I look out at the sea. I see white waves anxiously rolling towards the jagged shoreline, some bunching aggressively into the scattered remnants of the land, and others cleverly making theirContinue reading “Waves of Liberation”

The Tide! Tide is Time! Tide is timing! Low tide. High tide.  Tide is timing. Tide is time.  Tide or Time.  It’s the moment – the Kairos. Fishermen wait for the tide. Crabs wait for the tide. The Matura’s baby turtles wait for high tide, burst into the world, then take the high tide toContinue reading “Tide is Timing”

The John Crow (Jamaican). The Corbeau (Trinbagonian). The Vulture!  Exiting my house, I see one on top of the huge black Rhino water tank. It’s quenching its thirst, the source of which is a puddle of water settled on top of the tank.  Initially, I am not attracted to observe it or to take aContinue reading “Blackness”

I woke up early Republic Day (Trinidad and Tobago), not before Mother Sun, but early enough before her warmth blanketed the land.  I took a chair and settled in my garden of Eden, inspired to do a Visio Divina. I can hear my readers asking, “What’s a Visio Divina?”  It’s translated as “divine seeing”.  It’sContinue reading “Tension between the Old and New”

I conversed with a friend recently – an honest, frank and open tête-à-tête. He expressed appreciation for my blogs. They helped him to navigate life’s challenges and nourished his spiritual life. He also remarked on the shift he noticed in my writing style between August and September. The July and August blogs seemed relaxed, creative,Continue reading “Changes”

Today’s physiotherapy session to strengthen my right knee muscles triggers this blog on DIALECTICAL TENSION. My right knee is now weak. I remember the days of its strength. A time of strength, now a time of weakness. The Ecclesiastes writer captures best the dialectical tensions of human living and creation (3:1-8): A time for. .Continue reading “Dialectic Tension”

Not long ago, I read that the cells of our body are replaced by new cells every seven years.  Immediately, I imagine what the body would look like without the replacing of old cells with new cells – stiff like a corpse.  I think of the old cells of our. . . . . .Continue reading “New Cells”