Unfortunately two days have passed without my posting, which makes me feel as though this challenge might be more than I can handle. More importantly though, it illustrates to me just how difficult it is to make the personally valuable things a priority in my life.
Monday I spent most of the evening (from 6:30 to midnight) at a public forum with the Planning and Zoning Department of Anchorage which was considering a petition to grant a conditional use permit to allow the establishment of a housing facility for 48 end stage homeless chronic inebriates--a facility that will come within 500 feet of a neighborhood park, hence the need for the zoning variance.
Anyone who knows me well is aware that we live within a stone's throw of a homeless shelter and a soup kitchen in an industrial part of town. Our home is located next to our auction yard, and we have lived here for nearly 12 years and have owned the auction yard for nearly 20 years. Despite the grittiness of the neighborhood, this has been a great place to raise our five children--in fact our youngest, who is 14, doesn't remember the two houses she lived in prior to moving here.
At issue is not the need for such a facility, or even the fact that the neighborhood of Fairview has been overwhelmed by a variety of social service entities, including a large jail. To say that fighting for the quiet enjoyment of my property has been an ongoing issue would be an understatement. It has been a battle against the well-intentioned but misguided humanitarians (many of whom are my friends) who have unfortunately painted Fairview residents as NIMBY's and at the very least, unconcerned with the plight of the unfortunate souls who have ruined their lives with alcohol. The issue is that the purchasers of the property (an old hotel) have been disingenuine in procuring the site on the hopes that the city would grant the variance, which doesn't say much for their ultimate accountability to the neighborhood.
We await the decision of the Commission on August 9th.
As to why I didn't get my lean 15 posted yesterday, well, I have no really good excuse. One indulgence I allow myself is to meet with a few other women from my church for "creative circle" on Tuesday mornings. Yesterday morning I was running a bit late, having been up so late the night before. By mid-afternoon I realized I had not posted, but the evening slipped away before I got the chance, and despite my best efforts to stay awake, fell asleep while watching television.
So, I am here now, and as soon as this is posted, I am off to finish the last of the laundry and to hunt for some items to give to one of the Sisters who is doing craft projects with the Hispanic kids in Kodiak, and then it will probably be near time for bed.
I have been working to put together a large garage sale to benefit my parish of St. Anthony's--a tedious but necessary task, as being owners of an auction business, we have acquired far too much "stuff." This sale will be off-site so things must be reasonably secured for transport, adding a bit more work to an already overwhelming task. It is much like trying to eat the proverbial elephant one bite at a time. I realize how much time has already been wasted on storing and re-storing so much of this stuff. As I said before, part of the purpose of this blog is to generate a new spirit of "leanness" --not just of body and spirit, but of environment as well.
And now my 15 minutes is up. Back to work!
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