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Blog archive

March 2025

About Senior Solutions
03/28/2025

Building a Bridge With Journey House, A Home Base for Former Foster Youth
03/28/2025

Come for the Knitting, Stay for the Conversation... and the Cookies
03/28/2025

Creating Safe and Smart Spaces with Home Technology
03/28/2025

Finding Joy in My Role on The Pasadena Village Board
03/28/2025

I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up!
03/28/2025

Managing Anxiety
03/28/2025

Message from Our President: Keeping Pasadena Village Strong Together
03/28/2025

My Favorite Easter Gift
03/28/2025

The Hidden History of Black Women in WWII
03/28/2025

Urinary Tract Infection – Watch Out!
03/28/2025

Volunteer Coordinator and Blade-Runner
03/28/2025

Continuing Commitment to Combating Racism
03/26/2025

Status - March 20, 2025
03/20/2025

Goodbye and Keep Cold by Robert Frost
03/13/2025

What The Living Do by Marie Howe
03/13/2025

Racism is Not Genetic
03/11/2025

Bill Gould, The First
03/07/2025

THIS IS A CHAPTER, NOT MY WHOLE STORY
03/07/2025

Dramatic Flair: Villagers Share their Digital Art
03/03/2025

Empowering Senior LGBTQ+ Caregivers
03/03/2025

A Life Never Anticipated
03/02/2025

Eaton Fire Changes Life
03/02/2025

February 2025

Commemorating Black History Month 2025
02/28/2025

Transportation at the Pasadena Village
02/28/2025

A Look at Proposition 19
02/27/2025

Behind the Scenes: Understanding the Pasadena Village Board and Its Role
02/27/2025

Beyond and Within the Village: The Power of One
02/27/2025

Celebrating Black Voices
02/27/2025

Creatively Supporting Our Village Community
02/27/2025

Decluttering: More Than The Name Implies
02/27/2025

Hidden Gems of Forest Lawn Museum
02/27/2025

LA River Walk
02/27/2025

Message from the President
02/27/2025

Phoenix Rising
02/27/2025

1619 Conversations with West African Art
02/25/2025

The Party Line
02/24/2025

Bluebird by Charles Bukowski
02/17/2025

Dreams by Langston Hughes
02/17/2025

Haiku - Four by Fritzie
02/17/2025

Haikus - Nine by Virginia
02/17/2025

Wind and Fire
02/17/2025

Partnerships Amplify Relief Efforts
02/07/2025

Another Community Giving Back
02/05/2025

Diary of Disaster Response
02/05/2025

Eaton Fire: A Community United in Loss and Recovery
02/05/2025

Healing Powers of Creative Energy
02/05/2025

Living the Mission
02/05/2025

Message from the President: Honoring Black History Month
02/05/2025

Surviving and Thriving: Elder Health Considerations After the Fires
02/05/2025

Treasure Hunting in The Ashes
02/05/2025

Villager's Stories
02/05/2025

A Beginning of Healing
02/03/2025

Hectic Evacuation From Eaton Canyon Fire
02/02/2025

Hurricanes and Fires are Different Monsters
02/02/2025

January 2025

To Have or Have Not

By Karen Bagnard
Posted: 06/13/2021
Tags: karen bagnard, poetry

Contributed by Karen Bagnard


Our Village is a place where we find  friendship, fun and support.  Recently a life-long friend outside the Village, in the city of Seattle, offered me a wonderful story to help me stay motivated to do my daily walks as I was feeling awkward with my dark glasses and white cane.  I’m extending this lovely story to my Village friends in hopes it may help one of you, as well.





                                                                    To Have or Have Not
                                                                             by Linda Cutler

 
To have or have not?
The question played repeatedly
Like a broken record for a year and a half.
Have I tried everything possible?
Alternative treatments...
Usual and unusual methods?
Time passing...
Ability to walk diminishing.
How much can I lose?
Apparently everything.
Little daily struggles like
Getting out of my Honda Accord at work
Hoping no one saw this awkward challenge.
Getting up from a chair
Pretend it doesn't hurt.
No longer climbing the stairs at work.
Thank God my school has an elevator.
I walk the halls with work friends carrying on conversations
That end as we approach the stairs.
They climb
I press a button
 
I used to love walking the 1.3 miles around Haller Lake.
Doing Zumba, yoga and pilates
I had an active life, but
Now it slowly slips away from me
Like low tide exposing barnacle-encrusted, rocky shore.
Boredom, pain, exhaustion
Clothing no longer fitting.

To have or have not?
 Decided to meet with a surgeon
The x-ray says it all,
“Bone on bone.”
He knows before seeing the x-ray, as I catch him watching me walk.
Ummm...a new hip for my birthday.
This isn't a present on my wish list.
No one looks forward to a surgery with loud sounding, electric metal saws and hammer!
Replacing bone with metal used in rocket ships.
 
After the surgery room drama and my first week's recovery
It's time to see what I can do outside my 1300 square-foot world
Nestled on the rim of Haller Lake.
Luckily it's summer!
Perfect timing.
I tentatively take myself and my fancy red walker out for a spin.
I force good posture as I push my walker ahead of me then step forward
To meet this new dance partner again and again.
A rhythm develops between metal, wheels, handles and I.
Then a surprising wave of self-consciousness.
I don't want to be seen this way.
After a few more minutes of embarrassment
I give myself a firm pep talk.
"Stop worrying about what others are thinking.
Oh, and by the way, you don't even know what they are thinking."

My first goal is to accept myself as I am
Right in the middle of all this.
 Then distance goals are set.
Pushing through pain and exhaustion
A few more feet each day.
Eventually, I find myself seven houses away.
A woman comes out of her home and calls out to me.
"Would you like a ride home?"
I laugh as I point to my home,
Just down the road.
She shares her story: a surgery that left her and her walker
Too far from home-base,
And not enough strength
To make it the rest of the way back.
Fortunately, I'm still okay
I turn my red walker around and head back to the barn.

Next day I make it to the stop sign!
Exciting!
I want more.
It's Wednesday and I really want to make it to North Alliance Church.
 
Through this experience,
I got to know many neighbors around Haller Lake.
I began a self-conscious woman
That didn't want to appear weak using a walker and then cane.
I became a woman that learned to accept herself
Struggles and all,
And experienced immense gratitude as a result of that.
I made a decision to believe that people were supportive
And came to see THAT was the truth.
People watched me struggle and saw my progress.
They smiled, waved and even cheered
As the distance from my starting place increased.
 
One of the finest days of my life came
When I realized my dearest goal: making it around the 1.3 perimeter of the lake.
I was as happy and thrilled as if I had completed a marathon.
We take our abilities for granted.
We forget what a joy it is to be able to move freely.
To walk
Taste
Speak
Hear
Having arms and hands to embrace, feed and dress ourselves.
We seem only to realize this ignoring-of-gifts, when one is taken away.
And, oh the deep appreciation,
When one of these gifts is returned!




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