Atascadero Press

Harmony, Friendship & Love on the Central Coast Column.

Picking up where others left off.

Helping each other is a fundamental tenet of any friendship. In our busy lives, we often create gaps that the brush strokes of life miss. When painting a landscape and you find that you don’t have enough green it is nice to be able to turn to your fellow painter (who by the way is painting nudes and doesn’t need green anyway) and borrow some bright vermilian. I find It really makes the leaves pop.

This week I was able to borrow some soul refreshing color from my fellow community members. We took to the local creek and made it shine by picking up trash that accumulated in the foliage throughout the meandering dog, deer, cat, and people trails behind the Vino Motel and under the Centenial Bridge. Although the encampments echoed our problem with housing for the poor, drug addicted and mentally ill, there was a substantial amount of wind swept wrappers, napkins, newspaper and ironically community action flyers tossed aside by citizens bustling to thier next adventure. The abundant city trash bins are easily located, however, the mere 2 foot hole in top may be a little hard to hit in high winds from 17 1/2 feet away. I would suggest a very satisfying old school Michael Jordan Slam dunk myself and the mental 2 points on the inner scoreboard of life that comes with it.

Love for our family, friends and neighbors is essential to keep a harmonious life.