Tag: DeBorah Ann Palmer

Vitamin Infusion

On By dancingpalmtreesIn DeBorah, DeBorah Ann Palmer, Grover Washington Jr - Soulful Strut, Roaming Urban Gypsy, Soulful Strut, Stephen, Stephen Vincent Palmer, Uncategorized, Vitamin Infusion, Walking Exercise10 Comments

 

Had my first B12 Booster shot Saturday morning. The offices are nice and clean. The gentleman who is a nurse who gave me my shot was professional and polite. He is also very good looking and easy on the eyes!!  LOL!! Yes young folks I still look at men even at my age!  LOL!!

I did feel energized afterwards. Also treated myself to a manicure and a pedicure. The way I figure we are not on this earth just to work and pay bills. I work loads of overtime and I might as well spend some of that money on me. Naturally I always make sure that my rent is paid. One must have a place to live and New York winters are brutal.

I was able to go on an extended Soulful Strut (that’s what I call my photography walks) along 8th Avenue in Manhattan. The pictures will be posted both here and on my photography blog Roaming Urban Gypsy.  https://roamingurbangypsy.com/

Once I pay my landlord, purchased my Metro Card (bus & subway), utility and phone bills I try to buy myself a small treat.  For those of you wondering I pay cash. No credit cards for me. Also Yes I am saving for retirement. That comes out of my paycheck automatically and goes into a Fidelity Savings plan that I cannot touch until I’m 59 or probably 60. As a Union employee I also get a pension. When I turn 62 God Willing I will apply for and collect Social security.

Obviously due to my girlfriends death emotionally I’m still sad, distressed and upset  but her passing has motivated me to take better care of myself physically. There is not much I can do about my feelings. Nobody feels happy or joyful when a close friend dies. However in light of all that has happened my faith and reliance on God deepens.

Of course one can take all the vitamins in the world, eat the right foods, exercise all day long and then get hit by a truck or bus but all things being equal and having no control over accidents I hope to outlive my friend, co-workers, my parents and many of my relatives who have died in their 50s and 60s. Since I turned 50 in 2009 I’ve seen, heard and been to more wakes and funerals than I care to admit. I guess the key is to make it past 65. My goal is to live to be 70 an age that neither one of my parents achieved. At least one can apply for social security at 62 and have a few years to enjoy oneself before traveling to the great beyond.

I never smoked. Rarely drink alcohol. Eat very little red meat and no dairy. I do some moderate exercise usually walking during the week.  I’m open to new health technologies. Reviv | IV Therapy infusion is one that I shall participate in on a regular consistent basis as long as I’m able. Everybody wants to live a long life but living a long life without good health is worthless. Who wants to be a vegetable, in a nursing home or become a burden to one’s family members if you’re fortunate to have living relatives who even desire to care for you.

Since I never married nor had children the onus is on me. Also my brother Stephen is another great inspiration and motivation for me to be my Personal Best. Stephen is the World’s Greatest Autism Guy and in excellent physical condition. Only the two of us now so Stephen relies on me. Once I retire in approximately two years I want Stephen and I to be able to do fun activities and enjoy our Golden Years together.

 

http://revivme.com/

 

A few photos from my Soulful Strut. If you cannot view them please click on the below link.    https://goo.gl/photos/aCe7hX9FZ1chqj9U6

 

 

Grover Washington Jr – Soulful Strut

Rosemary, The Hidden Kennedy Daughter

On By dancingpalmtreesIn DeBorah, DeBorah Ann Palmer, Edward G. Palmer, Edward Gordon Palmer, Edward Palmer, Mable Elizabeth Palmer, Mable Palmer, Rose and Joe Kennedy, Rosemary Kennedy, Rosemary, The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, Stephen, Stephen Vincent Palmer, Uncategorized16 Comments

 

An extremely moving talk about Rosemary Kennedy.  Please see the entire video at the bottom of this post. For whatever we think of the Kennedy’s especially Joe Kennedy I found myself listening to this talk from the perspective of parents with an intellectually/developmentally disabled child. Despite all their resources and riches the techniques, programs, services and medical care that is available today was not there in the 1920s/1930s.

In some parts of the film relate to the mother Rose Kennedy via my mother Mable Palmer. I can clearly imagine the frustration of placing your child in school after school waiting for the miracle result that never manifests even with all your wealth, power and influence.  Like the Kennedy’s our parents always impressed upon me that we must stick together. “Blood is thicker than water.”  As you know from previous posts I am very protective of my brother Stephen.   I also know and remember the stigma, shame and guilt my mother Mable Palmer went through in the 1960s/70s so it must have been even worse in the 1920s/30s.

Initially Stephen screamed. All. The. Time.  I don’t know how my mother managed. Dad went to work every day so he got a break.  After a time Stephen stopped screaming and eventually did speak but to this day he cannot carry on a conversation though he will listen to the other people around him and respond if questioned.

However my parents drew the line at any type of medical experimentation. Plus being working class obviously our parents especially our Mom were much more hands on. Daddy did take us out on the weekends so Mommy could get a break. They refused to institutionalize Stephen.

However having said that I cannot pass judgments on Joe and Rose Kennedy having Rosemary lobotomized. At that time a lobotomy was considered a cure for various types of mental illness.  I would guess they were at their wits end given Rosemary’s behavior. Sadly Rosemary Kennedy came out of the surgery totally disabled. She was the sacrificial lamb. Not a Happy Ending.  At that point in the documentary I wanted to cry.

I’m very glad that my parents did not put Stephen away into an institution. I’m grateful that Stephen and I grew up together. I remember back in 1989 when Stephen was placed into his current Group Home. Even though I was the one who worked to get him placed into a facility because my parents were becoming ill and could no longer care for Stephen, I cried the first night I came home from work and Stephen was not there running down the stairs to greet me.

Thanks to Eunice Kennedy Stephen did participate for many years in the local Special Olympics held at St. John’s University in Queens, New York.

Thank you to all the Kennedys’ who after witnessing this horrible event happen to their beloved sister worked to make things better for intellectually/developmentally disabled people today. No matter what side of the political fence you’re on without the hard work and tenacity of the Kennedy siblings we would still be in the Dark Ages of institutionalized warehousing.

See Willowbrook State School:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willowbrook_State_School

Thank you Rosemary Kennedy for being a transformation for good! God Bless you for now you reside in your Heavenly home well, happy, healthy and free!!

Thank you Lord God Jehovah for my brother Stephen Vincent Palmer. For all the progress he made in spite of the negative reports from those doctors back in 1963 when he was two years old.  God knew better because Stephen is one of His special children. Thanks to our parents who believed that Stephen could learn, who treated him just like any other child, gave him chores to do up to and including his abilities and disciplined him teaching him right from wrong so that today Stephen is a contributing member of society.  He is more than my sibling. He is my companion. My friend. My life long partner and I would never trade or ask the Heavens for a so-called “normal” sibling when I have the most perfect brother in the world!!

I Love You Stephen Vincent Palmer!!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Rosemary, The Hidden Kennedy Daughter

October Fall Foliage Walk in Central Park

On By dancingpalmtreesIn 86th Street Central Park West, Baby Boomer: New York, USA, Black Fran Drescher, Central Park, DeBorah, DeBorah Ann Palmer, Fall Foliage Tour, Fran Drescher, New York, New York City, New York Skyline, Oddball New York, Quirky New York, Uncategorized26 Comments

 

 

Here I am the Black Fran Drescher with my nasally New York voice narrating today’s walk through Central Park.  Did not know I sounded like Fran Drescher because well, how often do we listen to the sound of our own voice?  Anyway as you listen to me narrate the joys of NYC’s Central Park know that I will never be asked to do Voice-Overs unless it’s for some type of cartoon or dorky video game!! LOL!!  🙂   😀

 

 

Libation

On By dancingpalmtreesIn "I Dreamed of Rain"-Jan Garrett & JD Martin, Jimmy Cliff - Many Rivers To Cross, Psalm 137:1-4, rain, Rain Showers, Rivers of Babylon-The Melodians, Uncategorized, Underwater Sculpture in Honor of Africans Thrown Overboard, Weather6 Comments

 

https://weather.com/weather/today/l/Brooklyn+NY+11233:4:US

It’s a rainy Sunday here in New York.  Chillier than yesterday. Neither good nor bad. Just is. Sunday a day of reflection and worship for many Christians. I’m not a regular church goer. My attendance in a brick and mortar building is a rare occurrence. Gradually the Baptist Faith of my youth has morphed into an appreciation and Liberation from the confines, dogma and doctrine of the traditional church.  All faiths both traditional and indigenous for me have become one. All are pieces of the original stone. Yet I feel the call of my Ancient Ancestral beliefs calling me home.  I Long for the Zion of Africa.

Psalm 137:1-4

New King James Version (NKJV)

Longing for Zion in a Foreign Land

137 By the rivers of Babylon,
There we sat down, yea, we wept
When we remembered Zion.
2 We hung our harps
Upon the willows in the midst of it.
3 For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song,
And those who plundered us requested mirth,
Saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song
In a foreign land?

Rivers of Babylon-The Melodians

For me I imbibe the magnificence of Creation more and more through Mother Nature herself. Even if I can’t be near a park or beach because of my heavy work schedule I see myself walking the beach early in the morning when there are only the seagulls flying overhead, the ebb and flow of waves lapping at sand.  Or I’m at the park. Perhaps Central Park or Prospect Park. Touching the trees, heavy protruding boulders, taking off my shoes making that connection to land.

I crave Oneness with Gaia, The Goddess, Mother Nature. African and Native American prior to the Colonizer. Praises to Oshun!!

Any Green-space where Gaia has left her mark in millennium stones, rocks and boulders pushed surface up that speak of eons past.

One hand touches rocks and stones. Voices of Tribal past speak Wisdom into my Life. Feet Grounded within Earth, Sand and Seas.

All geological evolutionary eras merge as one.

I was there at the Jordan baptizing Jesus. My flowing locs once jet black now white with mystical waves. I shook my bountiful mane and the earth trembled. Oshun welcomes back her prodigal son.

Oshun pushed aside Neptune and gathered up her children drowned lost in Middle Passage.  Watery graveyard. We search for each other. Shackled together. Far from the Motherland of our birth.

Brought on deck. Bound. Iron to Iron. Men. Women. Some pregnant. Children. Tossed like so much excess baggage from the good ship Amistad.

We cried out to the Goddess for Salvation. Swept away into the Abyss. Poseiden stepped on our necks and took our breath away. Only the Goddess of Our Royal Bloodline can redeem us. Our Orisha came and gathered our spirits into Her Bosom.

Meditate on Her. Meditate on Her.

I am She who was from the Beginning. I Birthed the Earth into Existence. All others who came after are just minor manifestations of true Grace. Manifestations of the Original Reigning Goddess.

She poured fragrant Libation upon our weary souls. She oiled the depths of our spirits. Deliverance was nigh. The New Sojourner Truth criss-crosses the Land gathering. Gathering. Sowing. Reaping. Transformation.

 

Psalm 137:1-4

New King James Version (NKJV)

Longing for Zion in a Foreign Land

137 By the rivers of Babylon,
There we sat down, yea, we wept
When we remembered Zion.
2 We hung our harps
Upon the willows in the midst of it.
3 For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song,
And those who plundered us requested mirth,
Saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song
In a foreign land?

JIMMY CLIFF – rivers of babylon

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118607/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amistad_(film)

http://www.ninasimone.com/2013/01/underwater-sculpture-in-honor-of-africans-thrown-overboard/

 

Jimmy Cliff / Many Rivers To Cross

 

https://dancingpalmtrees.com/2014/09/03/seed/

Ibeyi – River

 

“I Dreamed of Rain”-Jan Garrett & JD Martin

 

 

 

 

 

Nickel and Dimed

On By dancingpalmtreesIn Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed, Uncategorized14 Comments

Please read this book.  Either buy it or borrow it from your local public library. What the working class women in the book go through is currently what I am experiencing. Having a college degree. Doesn’t matter. Serving in the military. Does not matter.

When I first read the book I was a prosperous member of Middle Class America. When I was laid off from my good paying job Dec. 2006, had a stroke Nov. 2008 and retina surgery Jan. 2010 I became and am mired in the lower working class. I am no longer human but a cog in the robotic machinery ala the film Metropolis where my only purpose and function is to make money for the Big Machine. Once you fall from grace through lay-offs, firings, sickness, disability, illness or family problems you become mired in a lifestyle you once felt pity for but now find yourself in a quicksand from which there is no escape.

Our economy in America is based on modern day slavery and truly the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Choose. Your job or your family. Your health or your job. Which one would you choose?

Image result for nickeled and dimed
Nickel and Dimed
Book by Barbara Ehrenreich
Nickel and Dimed: On Getting By in America is a book written by Barbara Ehrenreich. Written from her perspective as an undercover journalist, it sets out to investigate the impact of the 1996 welfare …Wikipedia
Originally published: January 1, 2001
Author: Barbara Ehrenreich
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Country: United States of America
Characters: B.J., Ted, Marge, George, Holly
Genres: Economics, Sociology, Biography, Autobiography, Business