News & Events

The “Reserved Parking Spots” are for those residents who have reasonable accommodations and have been granted a parking spot by the BHA Management. If you have not been assigned a “Reserved Parking Spot” please DO NOT park in one. Illegally parking in a reserved spot causes great inconvenience to those residents who need to have access to “Reserved Parking”

This should be a common sense to most people, however, here is another reminder for the residents of Forrestal Heights to be please be considerate of your fellow neighbors.

Doing the right thing is not that difficult, it just takes the willingness preform an act of kindness.

Thank you

BHA Management

Few writers were more influential during the 19th century than Thomas Carlyle; the Scotsman’s essays, histories, and other works had a profound effect on Victorian literature and beyond. In 1855, four years after Carlyle’s death, Mary Ann Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot, wrote that “there has hardly been an English book written for the last ten or twelve years that would not have been different if Carlyle had not lived.” Charles Darwin, meanwhile, called Carlyle “the most worth listening to, of any man I know.” The sheer scope of Carlyle’s literary endeavors — including his three-volume “French Revolution” and his epic six-volume “History of Frederick the Great” — may well have appeared impossible to lesser writers. Carlyle’s love of literature, however, seemingly made no task too great, as he once called the art of writing “the most miraculous of all things man has devised.” 

With this quote, Lord Francis Bacon reminds us that success is rarely achieved by happenstance, but rather by taking action. A British lawyer, statesman, and philosopher born in 1561, Bacon wrote extensively on the topics of ethics, politics, and religion. Under the rule of King James I, Bacon achieved England’s highest political office of Lord Chancellor. This quote encapsulates his attitude on ambition and has been a rallying cry of self-made women and men for hundreds of years. 

The latest issue of Aging News is now available!

Holiday Advisory:

Dutchess County government observes Christmas Day on Monday, December 26th; and New Year’s Day on Monday, January 2nd, 2023. Offices and Friendship Centers will be closed both days.

Clients of OFA’s Home Delivered Meals program will receive meals in advance of each day that friendship centers are closed.

Other topics include:

“Oh, I Don’t Need Anything”
Give Your Most Valuable Possession: Time
Volunteering in December and Over the Holidays

View or download on DutchessNY.gov (.pdf) >>>

www.dutchessNY.gov

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Volunteers Needed!

The Office for the Aging is seeking volunteers with clerical skills to help prepare about 2000 newsletters for mailing this week. If you can be at OFA headquarters in Poughkeepsie any day(s) the week of December 5-9, please contact OFA Outreach Coordinator Brian Jones at bjones@dutchessny.gov to find out which days and times fit into your schedule.

www.dutchessNY.gov

To be known as the greatest chameleon in music is quite a feat, but it’s a fitting title for David Bowie. His vision led him through pop, rock, electronic, and industrial music, and expanded his creative scope into film, fashion, and beyond. Given that he was an artist known for constantly evolving his sound and look, it’s no surprise that Bowie was not a huge fan of nostalgia. In a conversation with “Gear” magazine in his early 50s, he eschewed the idea of “pining for youth.” He chose instead to live in the present, believing that with age comes authenticity, and a chance to be your true self. 

Bob Marley’s music has achieved an enduring legacy that finds new listeners every day. Hailing from Jamaica, he was a pioneer of reggae music and helped popularize the genre around the world. When he converted to Rastafari (a religious and social movement) in the 1970s, the songs he played with his band, Bob Marley and the Wailers, took on more obvious spiritual themes. In lyrics such as this one (from the 1976 song “Positive Vibration”), Marley advocated for love and acceptance, and especially a positive outlook on the world. His songs are still beloved today in part because of their timeless message of inclusivity, optimism, and embracing our shared humanity.

Every day, for 10 years, cartoonist Bill Watterson delighted readers with a new story in his beloved syndicated comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes.” But that kind of round-the-clock ingenuity is no easy feat. His secret? Recharging the mind by letting it play. “I’ve had to cultivate a kind of mental playfulness,” Watterson said in the same 1990 commencement speech at Kenyon College where he gave the quote above. “A playful mind is inquisitive, and learning is fun.” In other words, creative ideas come when the mind is encouraged to wander into new areas, exploring wherever your natural curiosity may lead. Instead of “shutting off” your brain at the end of a long day, reinvigorate it by indulging your innate sense of wonder. If you follow what makes learning fun, it’s bound to lead you to new ideas.