Archive for 'Identity'

“I am the Planter of Trees in the Desert”

“I am the Planter of Trees in the Desert”

It’s Arbor Day today – April 24th. and I’m reminded of trees and identity, and a documentary I saw about the legendary and very real Timbuktu, the ancient city nestled in the middle of windswept Saharan sand dunes.

There’s something about the Sahara that has fascinated me since childhood. Perhaps because I grew up in the tropics where vegetation is dense, green, and colorful. The rainy afternoons of my childhood were spent indoors looking through my parent’s National Geographic magazines. Their ...

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Parental White Privilege Does Benefit Interracial Adoptees

Parental White Privilege Does Benefit Interracial Adoptees

Last week, an article in the Huffington Post https://huff.to/1I0A0fj To The Lady Who Called my Toddler a Thug, written by Rachel Garlinghouse, a white mother who adopted a black boy, got my attention. Particularly because of her concern that her little boy, just because of his appearance was, innocently and not so innocently stereotyped by people whom she knew. It’s the US, I thought, and it’s a dangerous, racialized ...

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Closing the Circle

Closing the Circle

There are still times when I feel pretty wretched. They are no longer because of something someone said to me. But they come at night or during meditation, and have to do with my relationship with my mother. Not my German mother who in so many areas is deserving of my love and praise, but the mother who cradled me beneath her heart and whose placenta fed me for the months I lived in her womb. I am not ...

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Are Your Personal / Emotional Boundaries Invaded?

Are Your Personal / Emotional Boundaries Invaded?

Multiracial Family Portrait Children Only Over WhiteDoes it bother you that people ask you the dumbest things? Like “Are you adopted,” or “Where are you from?” when it’s obvious that you are biracial or that the people you call mom and dad were not present at your conception and birth?

In my case, people wanted to know who my birth mother was and why she gave me up. ...

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Dreams of my Birthmother Rosa

Dreams of my Birthmother Rosa

 

In writing my recent book, Split at the Root: A Memoir of Love and Lost Identity (Kindle) or Split at the Root: A Memoir of Love and Lost Identity, I tell the story of growing up within a culture and a race that was different to my own. Here’s an excerpt:

The night I finished reading Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John, the wind blowing outside my window ushered messages into my dreams.

I was Annie John, and had ...

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Learning to Appreciate a Rich Cultural Heritage

Learning to Appreciate a Rich Cultural Heritage

After meeting my birthfather Gil, I begin to love not only him, but also the culture and history of my ancestors.

Here’s an excerpt from Split at the Root: A Memoir of Love and Lost Identity.:

In Jamaica, so many years ago, Dr. Dezon was all set to tell me about shiploads of Caribs who were taken from the island of St. Vincent by the English and dumped on the Central American coast. At the time I was not ...

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First Meeting Between Adult Daughter and her Birth Father

First Meeting Between Adult Daughter and her Birth Father

Catana as a toddler in LivingstonI had spoken to my father a few times on the phone. In the following is an excerpt from Split at the Root: A Memoir of Love and Lost Identity of my first meeting with him.

What would Gil see when he looked at me, I wondered? Would my lips, as I shaped ...

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Christmas Eve Feast - Memories of Childhood

Christmas Eve Feast – Memories of Childhood
Decorated Christmas DeerIn Split at the Root: A Memoir of Love and Lost Identity, I tell the story of growing up within a culture and a race that was different to my own. Here’s an excerpt:Guatemala City is only 15 degrees north of the Equator, but at five thousand feet above sea level the altitude allows ...
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Misplaced Identity: The Reason to Begin Therapy

Misplaced Identity: The Reason to Begin Therapy

In my recent book, Split at the Root: A Memoir of Love and Lost Identity (Kindle) or Split at the Root: A Memoir of Love and Lost Identity, I tell the story of growing up within a culture and a race that was different to my own. Here’s an excerpt as to why I had to start a therapy program:

I stand motionless atop a rugged cliff, scanning a landscape where a cloudless sky spans the horizon. The jasmine-scented breeze ...

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How my seven-year old mixed-race son began to define issues of his identity

How my seven-year old mixed-race son began to define issues of his identity

In writing my recent book, Split at the Root: A Memoir of Love and Lost Identity (Kindle) or Split at the Root: A Memoir of Love and Lost Identity, I tell the story of growing up within a culture and a race that was different to my own. Here’s an excerpt:

On our first vacation we visited friends in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. We not only fell in love with the quaint village, we decided to move there. I’d take up ...

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