February, 2026

My Panamá Libre | More Menopause Lit | My Virginia Wolf Moment

My Panamá Libre

Most won’t get it. I have only been in Panama two weeks, and they want to hear me wax eloquent about white sand beaches, flavorful cuisine, and the bright blue skies in Afro-Antilean, Spanish, and West Indian hues. They want to hear me trash the U.S., and talk about how much cheaper everything is here. There is some of that, and none of that. And because they were not privy to planning and preparation, they want me to explain how my husband and I made it happen in a matter of days — or so, it would seem, to them.

Indeed, I thrive in the heat, even as those north of me complain of frigid climes. But they don’t quite understand how my blood flows differently in the cross breeze. My soul vibrates to a new language—no, not just to Spanish, but to the song of birds I never heard sing in Georgia. In my dreams I hear the Ancestors more clearly. And a current of indigenous energy lulls me into midday naps, and gently rouses me from my slumber in the early morning light.

---

More Menopause Lit

Now that I am sort of settled into my new digs, and no longer writing using my ironing board as a desk; I can continue to work on, research, and read literature about women in the phase of life in which I currently find myself. NPR calls her “…immensely talented and brave,” but I think it was the last line from the synopsis of Ana Turns by author Lisa Gornick that hooked it for me: “…the bounds of her own collaboration and forgiveness illuminated, Ana turns towards a vision of what she wants next in this blink of a life.” As Black women aging in the 21st century, we all come to that point in our lives when we realize how much we’ve done for so many, how much nonsense we’ve overlooked just to keep the peace, and how horribly we’ve neglected our own needs and dreams, that we are now looking to build futures we may have never imagined before. I’m only just beginning to read, so I don’t really know where this story is going. But already it sounds like a lot of women I know.

---

My Virginia Wolf Moment

While I am slowly rebuilding my life, I have finally gotten the study that I’ve always wanted—study/yoga room, that is. It is a room dedicated to my creativity and mindfulness—indeed, a room of my own. For some months now, I have been almost solely focused on getting myself here; here being Panamá, a retirement haven not just for myself, but for many Americans who have called this home since when the U.S. controlled the Panamá Canal. I have always enjoyed traveling, and a life abroad is something I’ve dreamed about since reading about the Expatriates: James Baldwin, Ernest Hemmingway, Richard Wright, Gertrude Stein, and Zora Neale Hurston. And now, it’s my turn.

During this transition, at the second anniversary of my retirement after working for over 45-years of my life, I’ve submitted two articles that are due to be published in March. (But because I am a little superstitious, I don’t want to say exactly where they will be published until they are released.) And though I will continue to pursue more of these kinds of opportunities, I can now resume working on the novel—and for now, the memoir is on the back burner of my mind.

---

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can-begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”
~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe