MY GUILTY PLEASURE

MY CHILDREN are grown, with their own partners, their own lives.

- DONNA BAILEY NURSE

Southern Gospel

But every happy once in a while, we are together again on a Sunday morning. I make their favourite Jamaican breakfast: ackee and salt fish, boiled green banana, callaloo, fried plantain, Johnny Cakes, and harddough bread.

I soak the salt cod overnight and wake up early to flake it. While I prepare the fish and knead the dumplings-the way my grandmother did, smoothing the dough flat and rolling it into a small ball-I listen to my Sunday-morning playlist. It is made up mostly of songs in the southern gospel tradition-spiritual ballads like "Because He Lives" or the militaristic "There Is Power in the Blood." Music derived from the centuries-old European hymnal, updated in expression, calming in its strict adherence to conventional rhythm and form.