Random Thought of the Day

Ringing in 2024

Published on by Danielle.McClean

Happy New Year, everyone!

Reflecting on the past year, there’s a lot that 2023 brought along with it that I loved: invaluable family and friend time, professional and literary connections and opportunities, unanticipated visits and adventures, and the space for creative development and growth. But devastating happenings in the wider world and emotionally distressing occurrences closer to home did, at times, make me want to alternately hold my head or throw up my hands in despair. When will we humans get this whole living, loving, coexisting, and respecting thing right? 

I do have a stubbornly optimistic spirit, though, and it is hopeful for (and low-key excited by) all the wonderfully positive things that can happen around us and through us in these next twelve months. So, here’s to anticipating an abundance of beautiful moments, great or small, and forging ahead with the mettle to make our corners of the world that much brighter and better in our own unique ways.

May 2024 be good to us all, and may we also be good to each other. 

Peace and love, 

~ Danielle

Hello there, 2023

Published on by Danielle.McClean

 Well, it’s the start of another year, and although my head and heart are still processing Rollercoaster 2022 with its joyous highs and painful lows, I look forward with hope to the many potentially good things that this coming year holds for us all. I am thankful that we are here to welcome 2023 and, as always, pray that our happy moments far outnumber the sad in these next 365 days. Stay well, friends, and move through this year with your personal brand of magic.

Peace and love, 

~ Danielle 

New Year Wishes

Published on by Danielle.McClean

Here’s to a new year in which our inner light will be inextinguishable, our joyful core resilient, and our hopes and dreams persistent. Stay well, and may 2022 be generous with its graces and blessings!

Peace and love, 

∼ Danielle

 

To Much-Maligned 2020:

Published on by Danielle.McClean

Well, you certainly made and left your mark, didn’t you? You were a year that threw us off balance and pushed our limits. You caused us to question, to reassess, to pivot, and propelled us to make difficult decisions. You tested our patience, humanity, empathy, resolve, and relationships, and true to your contradictory nature you simultaneously brought us together and pulled us apart.

You claimed way too many of us. 

But amidst the loss, uncertainty, and instability, you demonstrated over and over again that the human spirit is one of hope and resilience; that faith in what we are capable of and what we can achieve is not easily extinguished. 

So good-bye to you, 2020. So long. A new year and all the good that it potentially holds is in the wings. Peace out!

– Danielle

The Write Away! Y.A. Literature Project

Published on by Danielle.McClean

Bocas Lit Fest Donates 325 Books to Schools (Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, 30 October, 2020)

I’m so pleased that The Protectors’ Pledge is among the books being used in T&T secondary schools as part of Bocas Lit Fest and Scotiabank Trinidad and Tobago’s The Write Away! young adult literature project (Virtual creative writing workshops accessible through the T&T Ministry of Education’s School Learning Management System). More information about this fantastic initiative facilitated by the amazing Lisa Allen-Agostini can be found here: The Write Away Young Adult Literature Project  

2019: The Year of…

Published on by Danielle.McClean

2019 will be a year of courage. For some it will take the form of stepping into the unknown and pursuing an opportunity or dream, while for others it will be to finally say no to a situation that has gone on for too long. May our eyes and minds be open to recognize our own times of strength and the particular brand of courage that others possess.  

It will be a year of learning. There are those who will learn how to be still and really listen, and others whose triumph will lie in discovering their voice and raising it to be heard. For the benefit of ourselves and others, may we carve out time for introspection, reflection, and constructive interaction. 

2019 will also be a year of adjustment: of perhaps welcoming new members into families, groups, and tribes, or adapting to the painful reality of life after the loss of someone dear. May we be blessed to receive support and love when we are in need and be in a position to provide them to others when needed.   

For all of us, I hope that this is a year of growth, clarity of purpose, and discernment. May our moments of joy far exceed any of sadness, and may the sense of optimism and hope that we feel during this first week of January never dip too low during the next twelve months.

Wishing you peace, love, and a happy New Year,

Danielle      

Thanksgiving

Published on by Danielle.McClean

Here’s to remembering that there’s at least one person or thing for whom/which we can be thankful –today and every day– and that our smiles, words of kindness and wisdom, as well as our actions can be someone else’s blessing.

Peace and love, 

Danielle

As we start the New Year…

Published on by Danielle.McClean

I wish us courage to pursue our dreams; the patience and persistence to realize them; an inextinguishable peace of mind and spirit; and lives of authentic joy.

Happy New Year, everyone! May 2018 be all of this and more for you and your loved ones, my friends. 

Peace and love,

Danielle   

I Wonder

Published on by Danielle.McClean

Are we at the stage where we need to watch a person’s story unfold on screen—a big screen enhanced by surround sound, with each moment of drama, angst, hope, fear, and disillusionment perfectly matched with accompanying music and sound effects—before we can see that individual’s humanity and recognise it as equal to our own and deserving of the very same rights, protections, dignity, and aid that we would expect and demand for ourselves, our friends, and families?

Will we be flocking to see a film, years from now, about a family, perhaps like yours or mine, forced to abandon everything that at one point symbolized security and safety, grasp at whatever opportunity for survival is presented, and flee in terror? Will we choke up when its members are separated from each other and are forced to leave loved ones behind? Will we cheer and pump our fists when what’s left of that family defies all odds and boards a plane to safety; and then weep, shocked and aghast, when, upon arriving at the expected safe harbour, they are denied entry and put back on a plane to the very nightmare that, only moments before, they were thanking God that they had escaped?

What do you think? A five star rating? Lots of Oscar nominations?

There are countless stories: those of refugees, green card holders, visitors, and persons on student and work visas. All with lives. All with human rights. Persons like us.

Happy Easter!

Published on by Danielle.McClean

Hope. Joy. New beginnings. Life. Let’s remember to celebrate the small as well as big miracles with which we are blessed. Easter blessings to you and yours!

Peace and love, Danielle