Director's Message October 18, 2024

 Flu shots and COVID-19 booster vaccines will be available, and I urge all Veterans to come and get their flu shot and COVID-19 booster. There will also be health checks, medication disposal literature and resources, information about VAPIHCS services and programs, and community partners, including the American Jobs Center, Hawaii Poison Control, and the Hawaii Humane Society. For more information, call 1-800-214-1306. We look forward to seeing you there.

We Serve All Who Served

On October 19, 2024, VAPIHCS will participate in the Honolulu Pride Parade which starts at 4 p.m. from Magic Island to Kapiolani Park. VAPIHCS will also have a booth at the festival from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Honolulu Shell. Since the ending of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in 2010, VA has reached out to LGBTQ+ Veterans to let them know they are welcome at VA. Join us at the Pride festival for information and giveaways. Enroll today for VA services - VAPIHCS is proud to serve all who served.

Thoughts from Chaplain Jewel Davis - “Good Riddance”

If you have or have not played it before and happen to see a drawing of a hopscotch game on any given sidewalk, please be encouraged to happily accept the invitation to try this whimsical child’s play. Just be careful not to ruin the chalk or have a 7-year-old assess your speed and agility. All that is needed is yourself and a pebble that most likely feels better in your hands than in your shoes. Speaking of which, have you ever tried to walk normally with a pebble in your shoe? And how about sand? You know, those tiny grains that we thought we shook out of our shoes long ago only to discover some might have gotten trapped in the threads or under the insole. As these granular particles free themselves from their entrapment, they begin to nestle between our toes or beneath the ball of our foot. So, imagine walking, but with each step we feel the grainy discomfort that is initially a minor annoyance, but as we continue to walk, becomes increasingly more bothersome.

Unresolved emotions can be like the sand in our shoes. They begin as little irritations but when hidden or unaddressed, they start to interfere with the way we move within our environments. They weigh us down, shorten our stride, and slow our pace. They reduce our levels of comfort and interfere with our ability to enjoy basic, simple, and invigorating things in life. This is when it’s time for some good riddance. Like stopping to shake sand out of our shoes, it's necessary that we also pause to let go of lingering and unresolved emotions. By doing so, we free ourselves from weighty uncomfortableness. We get the pep back into our step, along with the hop, the skip, and the jump because we feel lighter and unencumbered. While caring for our Veterans, we may notice they also are trying to walk normally with “sand in their shoes.” May we be considerate of their lingering emotional and physical struggles and support their efforts to resolve and relinquish them. This is their good riddance.

I close with this: It has been said that “It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears us out, it’s the grain of sand in our shoes.” Blessings and Mahalo.

One Team, One Ohana!
Adam M. Robinson, Jr., MD, MBA, CPE 
Director, VA Pacific Islands Health Care System
VADM, MC, USN, (RET)
36th Surgeon General, USN

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