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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

Villages as a New Approach to Aging

By Ed Mervine & Dick Myers
Posted: 02/27/2024
Tags: village movement, dick myers, retirement, ed mervine

We all found the Village in different ways. For some of us, retirement had become a Netflix experience, sitting alone in dim lighting, watching the lives of others flicker on a screen across the room. We had the sense that we were passively moving along a conveyor belt, from couch to cruise ship to assisted living and ultimately to the graveyard. Some of the stops along the way were entertaining but not very rewarding. Life on the belt seemed to have little to do with us or who we could be.

Getting off the belt required action and realizing, as did Mary Ann Evans, the Victorian author better known as George Eliot, who wrote, “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” Taking responsibility for our lives and seeking out like-minded people ready to create more purposeful lives led each of us by various routes to Pasadena Village. Perhaps unknowingly, it also led us to a national movement committed to sustaining the health of American society by creating healthy communities for seniors.

The village movement started in Boston in 2002 and now includes 300 local villages nationwide, more than 40 of which are in California. Villages, including Pasadena Village, share similar goals and values but vary in size, membership profile, programs, services, organizational structure and history. That history is a record of members who take skills and knowledge they accumulated over decades of study, work and living and apply them to the task of formulating a new way to age in America.  

The same energy created state and national organizations to promote advocacy, mentoring, and sharing of best practices. In California, that agency is Village Movement California, of which Pasadena Village was a founding member. Nationally, it is Village to Village Network

Pasadena Village partners, supports and collaborates with both the national and state networks. These organizations are a resource for us but we also contribute to their success by sharing our experiences, skills, expertise and achievements. In our next article, we will discuss in more detail the various ways new and old members contribute to the village movement locally and on state and national levels. 

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