Safety in Seattle, Is it Fall Yet, Lack of Sleep, and Poetry Ups and Downs

Sunflower at Lavender Festival with wildflowers

Safety in Seattle

Tonight, while Glenn and I were walking around our Woodinville Lavender Festival, there was a mass shooting event at the Bite of Seattle Festival at the Seattle Center, with three people killed and four injured, including a two-year-old.

People have been talking about Seattle being less safe than it used to be, and this doesn’t really inspire confidence. Of course, in America, there are mass shootings practically every day. Anyway, just horrible, and I watched our television network anchors get visibly angry at the lack of information from the city—it took them six hours to get the news any information, including whether they were in an active shooter situation—which seems not really very good. One suspect is at large, one in custody. So many friends were out there. I’m sending comfort to all the victim’s families—even if that isn’t really enough.

Immature goldfinch at fountain

There were no shootings at all during the heightened security of the World Cup – so why can’t our city be like that all the time? Are the people in charge of this city doing everything they need to? There is always a trade off between freedom and security – something brought up by proponents and opponents of city security cameras and state gun rights. But something needs to change. There were police and security at Bite of Seattle – some of whom ran into gunfire to arrest one of the shooters or help shooting victims. It’s not like the event didn’t do its due diligence.

Me with wildflowers at Lavender Festival

The Lavender Festival in Woodinville’s Last Weekend

Meanwhile, we were unaware of all the pandemonium as we walked through the lavender farm (JB Growers in Woodinville), looking at the new blooms of early sunflowers and yellow wildflowers (black-eyed Susans?) Getting out to walk on the days when the weather cooperates (it started raining as we left today but a lot of the week, we had high heat and wildfire smoke) is so important for my mental and physical health – I joke that our local farms are my MS physical therapy. I don’t usually worry going to festivals on the East side of Seattle – in fact, I don’t usually worry when I go to festivals downtown.  No one likes to live in fear. We shouldn’t have to.

Some days you just don’t want to face the day

Is It Fall Yet? Plus, Poetry Ups and Downs

This is Sylvia expressing what I have felt some of this week – not ready to face the day. I am not a summer girl—I haven’t been sleeping well with the heat (up to 95 degrees this week) and the wildfire smoke that lingered a few days—and lack of sleep has taken a toll on my brain and body. Maybe I’ve felt a little depression and anxiety, more than usual.

I had some good poetry news this week (which I can’t share yet) and also some book rejections from places that had made it a finalist the last time they saw the same manuscript which makes me worry I shouldn’t send it out anymore (when is it time to shelve something? I’ve been messing with this MS for over five years!)

I find myself looking forward to fall already—cooler temperatures, pumpkin and apples, the sunsets happening a little earlier, the light a little more golden. My mood feels more stable in fall and my productivity as a writer definitely goes up. Is this true for you as well? I am wishing you all good sleep and no anxiety in this world that continually seems to ratchet up—at least in America—reasons to have so much anxiety.