Holding on to the Things We Love

Holding on to the things
we love we make a
barbecue, meet the new
neighbors, count the
moments, the smiles,
the little children.

Saturday afternoon we had a neighborhood barbecue.  Hamburgers, hot dogs, lots of sodas, potato salad, and grilled asparagus.   The asparagus was tasty.   We hoped to get enough people to agree to form a neighborhood association.   Our neighborhood is made up of single family homes like a good deal of South Reston.  We never needed a neighborhood association before.  But we need one now.  Our motives were simple:  1) to be able to communicate to neighbors the issues that the neighborhood may face with the coming of Metro and the subsequent redevelopment of Reston, and 2) to join the Alliance of Reston Clusters and Homeowners (ARCH), an umbrella organization that supports neighborhoods here in Reston.

We only needed ten signatures on the ARCH petition.  We got them.  Why join ARCH?  Visit their webpage, www.RestonARCH.org, and see what they do and what they have done in the interest of Reston homeowners. 

If you don’t have a neighborhood organization, now is the time to create one.  In this time of impending changes, we need to be more connected, more aware of the nature of those changes.  The Reston Master Plan is about to be rewritten by Fairfax County.  Our planned community is in the way of the changes they want to make.  Why hasn’t Reston Association communicated this fact to the homeowners?  Why, indeed? 

Have a barbecue.   It’s summertime.  Catbird is here. 

The long days,
the busy days
are brought to a full stop
by a single moment
of catbird thinking
out loud.