I’ve got a partial saga written and sitting in my draft folder. It is a convoluted and frustrating story that still has not reached a resolution, which plays into the procrastination. At certain moments, salient points and corresponding sentences will pop up in my mind, and I see them as if they are being typed. But that’s not happening. Instead, visual distractions keep pulling attention away. Pattern. Color. Snippets of life on or around The Urban Porch, within the house, and even far away. Perhaps those fragments just want to find their way onto this page – maybe if I put them down here and release them, I will be able to move on to finishing the task in the draft file.

The house sparrows have remained here all winter. The other day there was such an incessant racket coming from just one very vocal bigmouth, who appears to still be residing within the soffit at the corner of the porch. It poked its head out for a moment, perched on a post of peeling paint and below the drooping remnants of last year’s nest, the clouds above it cotton-ball pipe-puffs of white.

As I walk down the street with my dog, someone keeps watch from an upstairs window, framed in the emerald and turquoise stripes of a neighbor’s joyfully colorful house.

In the kitchen, a skillet full of purple potatoes frying on the stove glows like clusters of amethyst.

Upstairs, a hunk of amethyst crystal sitting on a dresser reflects the sunlight and mimics the potatoes.

Little Rudi in his striped tee shirt lies on the office rug, warming his arthritic bones in sunlight slanting through the blinds.

Sheet pan coconut shrimp with sweet potatoes and spinach is pulled from the broiler. Secondary colors of orange and greens amidst all the C- shapes can’t help but catch my attention.

At the same time I am preparing dinner, my sister is kayaking in a lake in New Zealand, trying to avoid disturbing these beautiful moon jellyfish with her paddle. She sends me this photo and I get lost in their design. Magic Moon Jellies! When first I see the picture, there is a sudden urge to be somewhere else. But I’m looking forward to the shrimp dinner too (which actually came out pretty amazing.)

Another dramatic stone in my bedroom – a slab of labradorite gleams, the striations displaying radiance, luster and texture. It holds its own magic too, a deep forest bathed in moonlight. I periodically walk over to it and get lost just looking into it, letting my mind and imagination wander.

Dark branches atop the Crow Tree become silhouetted fractals against last night’s fiery February sunset.

The evening sky is awash with layers and patterns, mood and color.

It seems everywhere, some sort of design, some detail, is constantly pulling me in another direction, far away from doing taxes, cleaning the refrigerator, or dealing with some of the stuff that is Less Than Pleasant. So easy to look away and find interest in the beauty. But now that some of this has been unloaded here, perhaps these visuals will provide a carpet to ride on towards accomplishing the unfinished.

~*~