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Blog archive

December 2024

November 2024

Event of Remembrance
11/22/2024

Phishing Scams: What You Need to Know
11/22/2024

Pupusas Family Style: Another Adventurous Dining Winner
11/22/2024

Celebrating the Holidays
11/21/2024

Genealogy Group: Discovering Our Pasts
11/21/2024

Nathan Wolford – From Tragedy to Ministry
11/21/2024

Pasadena Village Board of Directors: A Brief Overview
11/21/2024

President's Message
11/21/2024

The Day of the Dead (Dia de muertos)/ Mexican Culture/Community
11/21/2024

Vintage Celebration: Aging Like a Fine Wine
11/21/2024

Review of Racism in Our Local Past
11/20/2024

Creative Juices Flow in The Village
11/19/2024

Checking In by Ed Rinderle
11/15/2024

Eagle Poem by Joy Harjo
11/15/2024

I Shall Forget You Presently, My Dear (Sonnet IV) by Edna St. Vincent Millay
11/15/2024

Pictures From Brueghel by William Carlos Williams
11/15/2024

October 2024

ARBORIST WALK: NOT FOR TREE HUGGERS ONLY!
10/29/2024

Bill Wishner: Visual Hunter
10/29/2024

Can a Village Group Fix Our Healthcare System?
10/29/2024

Community Board Directors Strengthen Village Board
10/29/2024

Connecting with Village Connections: The A, B, C, & D’s of Medicare @ 65+
10/29/2024

Grief is a Journey: Two Paths Taken
10/29/2024

Message from the President
10/29/2024

Promoting Informed & Involved Voters
10/29/2024

What Will Be Your Legacy?
10/29/2024

1619, Approaching the Election...
10/27/2024

Beyond and Within the Village - A Star is Born
10/17/2024

Happiness by Priscilla Leonard
10/11/2024

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
10/11/2024

Unpainted Door by Louise Gluck
10/11/2024

In the Evening by Billy Collins
10/10/2024

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
10/10/2024

Betty Kilby, A Family History
10/01/2024

Betty Kilby, A Family History
10/01/2024

Betty Kilby, A Family History
10/01/2024

September 2024

August 2024

1619 Wide Ranging Interests
08/19/2024

1619 Wide Ranging Interests
08/19/2024

First Anniversary
08/19/2024

Alexandra Leaving by Leonard Cohen
08/16/2024

Muse des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden
08/16/2024

The God Abandons Antony by Constantinos P. Cavafy
08/16/2024

Ch – Ch – Ch –Changes
08/15/2024

Cultural Activities Team offers an ‘embarrassment of riches’
08/15/2024

Engaging in Pasadena Village
08/15/2024

Future Housing Options
08/15/2024

Message from the President
08/15/2024

There Are Authors Among Us
08/15/2024

Villagers Welcome New Members at the Tournament Park Picnic
08/15/2024

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
08/14/2024

A narrow Fellow in the Grass by Emily Dickinson
08/13/2024

Haikus
08/13/2024

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
08/13/2024

Poem 20 by Pablo Neruda
08/13/2024

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
08/13/2024

Trees by Joyce Kilmer
08/13/2024

July 2024

June 2024

May 2024

Emergency Preparedness: Are You Ready?
05/28/2024

Farewell from the 2023/24 Social Work Interns
05/28/2024

Gina on the Horizon
05/28/2024

Mark Your Calendars for the Healthy Aging Research California Virtual Summit
05/28/2024

Meet Our New Development Associate
05/28/2024

Putting the Strategic Plan into Practice
05/28/2024

Washington Park: Pasadena’s Rediscovered Gem
05/28/2024

Introducing Civil Rights Discussions
05/22/2024

Rumor of Humor #2416
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2417
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2417
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2418
05/14/2024

Springtime Visitors
05/07/2024

Freezing for a Good Cause – Credit, That Is
05/02/2024

No Discussion Meeting on May 3rd
05/02/2024

An Apparently Normal Person Author Presentation and Book-signing
05/01/2024

Flintridge Center: Pasadena Village’s Neighbor That Changes Lives
05/01/2024

Pasadena Celebrates Older Americans Month 2024
05/01/2024

The 2024 Pasadena Village Volunteer Appreciation Lunch
05/01/2024

Woman of the Year: Katy Townsend
05/01/2024

April 2024

March 2024

February 2024

January 2024

Four Kinds of Love

By Edward A. Rinderle
Posted: 12/15/2023
Tags: ed rinderle

I am a music lover.  I often walk through my day with a song in my head.  Sometimes, I even sing it out loud.  I have my favorites, and one of these is “The Rose” by Bette Midler.  

The first verse of “The Rose” speaks of how people can think of love in four different ways. I began to muse over how I might have loved in each of those ways at some time in my life.  Hence, the following.

Some say love, it is a river that drowns the tender reed.

Have I ever loved like that?  I'm afraid that the answer is yes.  With my kids when they were little.  I so wanted to convey my “wisdom” to them about what is the “right way” to live.  I was sure I had that “right way” all figured out, so I tried to impose it on them.  Out of love, of course.  It turns out that  I was right about some things, but wrong about others.  My kids have all grown into good people, however I choose to define “good”.  But there are some scars, scars that are my doing.  

Some say love, it is a razor that leaves your soul to bleed.

My kids again.  When I think back on my mistakes in raising them, my soul bleeds.  And with my dear Jean, in the last few months of her life - when she had lost nearly all of her ability to speak - as I tried to determine futilely what kind of help she needed, I bled.  I still do.

Some say love, it is a hunger an endless aching need.

I miss Jean so!  I hunger for her touch.

I say love, it is a flower and you, its only seed.

In my pain, I find myself surrounded by sowers.  Caring people that sow the seeds of love to me and to others.  People in Pasadena Village.  Friends and family in my neighborhood and beyond.  I know that the seeds they are sowing will sprout some day.  I can feel it happening.  I can hardly wait to see the flowers.

I've recently joined a grief group.  Something strange and wonderful seems to be happening there.  I see fellow grievers respond to something I say or do with kind words of gratitude.  Am I becoming a sower, too?

 

When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong.
Just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed that with the sun's love in the spring becomes the rose.

 

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