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Blog archive

April 2025

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

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

Sacraments

By John Tuite
Posted: 01/26/2021
Tags:
Gentlemen of the Village, I wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

Pat Dawe offered a great subject for our February discussion: objects or mementos that we gather around us; that give us strength and courage in difficulty; items that have special meaning and offer memories and feelings of important times, events, and people in our lives. Such things are the “sacraments” of our lives; they are symbols that touch our spirits, speak to our deep selves, bring us peace amid chaos, warm remembrance in cold times, and smiles in the dark.

 

The idea excited many thoughts for me, and I hope it will do the same for you.

 

I start by looking at my desk…it’s a usual mess…a favorite photo of me at twelve with my older sister and brother sitting on a Chicago park bench on a wintry February day.  It’s there when I phone either of them, still in Chicago, 76 years later…

 

On my walls, an original serigraph by Sister Corita which I bought in the 60’s while still a priest; an oil by an artist friend depicting a colorful scene of the lower desert which we bought during our years in Palm Springs; a Paul Klee print, a favorite from the Norton Simon. 

 

And books that I’ve refused to part with through the ten moves we’ve made during our marriage: biographies and writings of mentors and afar heroes of mine like Dan Berrigan, Jack Egan, Matthew Fox, Saul Alinsky, Rabbi Joshua Heschel, Karen Armstrong, and Andy Greeley.  Some fiction and poetry which I’ve visited again during the pandemic.

 

There is so much in this apartment that is sacramental to me that it could be my “desert island”!

 

Tell us about your mementos and their meanings…tell us about your desert island “bring-alongs”…and who gets them? Tell us what you’ve never told us!!!
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