Today's prompt is to write about a hobby - an easy one for me.
Beads on a String
Color and light,
cool glass beads,
mixed in a bowl
to match my mood,
bring your smile,
chase shadow away.
Color and light
cool glass beads,
exuberant, serene,
fall into pattern,
shine in the sun
by my will alone.
Color and light
cool glass beads,
demand no answers,
suffer no pain,
need no comfort,
simply calm my mind
This evening I went with a friend to City Hall to act as moral support and courage while she waited for the ruling on a variance for an eight foot tall fence around her pool. She got the variance with no complication and was much relieved, AND I found the whole experience of listening to a board discuss and vote on requests for departures from building code totally fascinating.
The board dealt with small issues, like my friends fence, and in several cases with issues of minor improvements in poor neighborhoods of old houses where keeping modern space restrictions just didn't work. They also huge issues of development, pros and cons, for example whether a drive in bank could be built in a neighborhood trying to become more urban and pedestrian focused (the neighborhood between my office and my house). The bank company was granted the variance to build in a way that is more car focused, because the board ruled that this was practical and also because of safety concerns regarding robbery and employees walking from cars to work if the parking was not visible from a street. The vast majority of the people who came tonight were members of neighborhood associations against the development of a new rehab hospital in an area that is already overdeveloped and impinges on my local creek, Shoal Creek. The very assertive young woman behind this proposal was strongly instructed by the board to talk to the neighborhood associations for a month - and to LISTEN to them before coming back with a revised proposal. All in all I liked the way the board dealt with the range of issues before them and am glad of the unexpected way I spent my evening.
4 comments:
Cool glass beads in a bowl! I love the images of this and might have guessed you would write the hobby prompt about beading. It suits you so well somehow--a calming thing to do I think.
It's nice to know someone can find city planning meetings fascinating! LOL They do have a lot of power.
I love this poem, as I can just picture you beading and how calming the hobby would be!
As for the board meeting, this reminds me very much of what we went through when TRYING to get a particular kind of fence around our pool approved. Good for you for going along for moral support.
It does not surprise me that you wrote about beading. Continuing to enjoy some of the 'fruits' of your hobby!
What an interesting way to spend your day, Victoria. I enjoyed reading that you were fascinated by the proceedings. They would not affect me that way but Bill would enjoy them as well.
Your poem is so neat. I can feel the beads in my hand and understand how they keep you focused on them and their beauty instead of other worldly things. It's great that you have this ability and artistic bent to be able to create beautiful jewelry.
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