Director's message october 18, 2024 | va pacific islands health care | veterans affairs

VAPIHCS Veterans, VA Pacific Islands Health Care System (VAPIHCS) will be celebrating Pharmacy Week by holding an information fair from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day from October 21-25, 2024, in

the lobby of the Spark Matsunaga Ambulatory Care Center (ACC) at 459 Patterson Road in Honolulu.  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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