jamie's wanderings

 How a tall dark reggaeton singer from Puerto Rico inspired me this week? Guys, its been a week. Between one thing and another, I broke down hard crying this morning. I won't bore you with details, but its hard to work within the self employed structure in Spain, and its not for the weak of heart. And its not stopped raining after 3 weeks of water water water everything, raging river behind my house and flooding to the west of us. Even the sweetest listing agent in the world I've worked with for the last 10 days told me yesterday that his own house was flooded. I had forgotten how this sort of thing triggers me from past experiences that today we aren't going to discuss. But in the midst of it all, I watched Bad Bunny, or Benito, a tall man who used to bag groceries by day and make music by night, win the first ever Grammy for best album of the year for an album done ENTIRELY in Spanish. And even more so, Benito's Spanish, that is from Puerto Rico, its own brand of vodk...

      It's an overwhelming world. Rain and the coldest month of the year never help the feels, and to watch the world descend into chaos while that's happening, even more disheartening.     On an international level, to quote the old book, it is full of wars and rumors of wars, and over all, a lot of unrest. On a personal level, its a low moment, and I'm hopeful it doesn't last long.     I have remembered lately friends of the past and how they touched my life to keep me going, and I've just learned on a deeper level that an old friend has experienced some of the same issues I've discussed in this blog, in the words of his wife, "he was accused of not preaching the Gospel in his sermons."     This accusation has been tossed towards me more than once and again and again, and to see it thrown against people I know to be Christ followers, makes me even more determined as I sit here in my chilly living room this rainy end of Jan night. What is th...

It's not been a week since my last blog, and yet, the heart is so overwhelmed, it needs to write. My brother Jason encouraged me earlier this year that I should write more as creativity is what we all need in this moment. Again, as I've stated, by no means is this blog political. I have always wished to protray in my social media and internet sphere as a person of faith, of living in another culture I wasn't raised in, an academic and a businesswoman, not always in that particular order. But its too heavy. A woman made a decision and a man made a decision. Her's did not appear to threaten life, his took hers and he called her out with the worst slur for a man to call a woman in the English language. And worse yet, because everywhere, men demean and degrade women they feel they most impose their power upon, he was defended, whisked away to an unknown location. And we may never see any sense of justice or truth, instead we see coverup and lies. Many on social media this w...

 Two days into the new year, 2026, and I met someone that felt like I was looking the mirror, but a long time ago. And I cried. And hope flooded back. How did this go? Friends were invited, suddenly came and all together, the little family and Andrew and I found a place for food. We sat and had pizza. J, (which felt fun because I'm James to my family and my brother is Jay) asked me politely what I did. For an almost 15 year old, I was impressed with their ability to start a conversation. In this day and age, so many teenagers could care less about the older person sitting next to them at the pizzeria. So I gently explained, and they looked me straight into my eyes and I said, I don't think I could sell houses. I don't think I read people very well. I paused. I remember saying such things at 15 years old, and then people realized what that was, and they challenged me. Or they didn't. And I remember those moments so clearly like a bell. And it all came rushing back as I l...

 There is a question that goes around social media as of late, and it says, What radicalized you? And so this blog is the answer to that question. And the other stimulus is seeing a whole lot of hate, prejudice and misunderstanding floating around against Islam. I've spent a lot of time Islam adjacent. I studied it a lot in high school and college, and went to two countries before I celebrated my 21st birthday. that the majority of the population would identify as Muslim. Now, for over 22 years, I have lived in Granada, a city in which for over 700 years was the Shangri la of the Islamic world, full of art culture history medicine and law as a result. Yes, medicine and law as we understand them now, began here. Finally, my personal group of friends for over 15 years has included men and women from different parts of the Islamic world. No names here, but they have done nothing but enrich my life, and helped me learn more about this world I live in. So, when I see extreme posts about...

 This month has been one of deep reflection, art and mystery and I think most end of the years should be like this. We are now on the edges of Christmas, with this week being the first Sunday of Advent. And building up to this point I've been privy to a great deal of art and music that has helped heal my soul But one of the breaking moments I've experienced was today. There is a social media account of a southern US man talking about the culture of that world, and it broke me. See, I didn't grow up in the South, but my Mom's mom and grandma were Nana and Nanan respectively and that shows you they were from West Virginia. Well, this man talked about the church ladies that raised him, comforted him and nurtured him, and just hearing about his experiences brought tears to my eyes and memories that bubbled over. The Thanksgivings my Nana made a dozen pies, and then we snuck in the night before to consume one without her knowledge....with Grandad. Going to my Aunt Jane's...