In the summertime, when all the trees that leaves the green
And the red bird sings, I'll be blue
Cause you don't want my love
In the summertime, that's what you say
And I'll let you laugh at me and make me cry
Cause you don't want my love
So the green represents life and these trees
And our environment and our neighborhood and our community
We're adding a train and it's a light rail train
And that's represented by orange for the orange line
And it also represents the changes that are happening
It's not just the trees, it's not just this
But we're also getting a new portion of the trolley trail
What's that going to be like?
How are those changes going to affect our families
In transportation and our environment?
And then white is kind of for a fresh start
What do we want that to look like?
What can we do to make that fresh start the best it can be?
And then green is reestablishing a new community
And a new sense of pride in where we've come
I'm going to take a risk here and share with you
A poem that I wrote yesterday
The trees stand sentinel, rimming the floodlit bowl from above
Tall and stately or small, each striving to the sky
And deep into the earth
They witness the scene below, first still
Then nodding imperceptibly
Their limbs, I notice, shelter and shade
All living things that would come near
Their branches embrace the air and scent it, ever green
The trees are doing what they're meant to do, I think
Being who they're meant to be
On the fields, strewn like seeds on the wind
Ribbons of color and movement consume my senses
These are our children
Grown into brilliant patches of color and motion
Flowers more beautiful than they can possibly know
The rim of trees, now nodding and rising in a breeze
Attend each hope and dream displayed across the field
Unasked, the trees affirm the children's presence there
And fill their lungs with scented air
Then slowly, seamlessly, I see the tallest trees
Receive and merge with darkness until they disappear
Once more standing guard in silence through the night
How graciously, I think, how selflessly they offer up
To stay the course and run the race we chose for them
Ever doing what they're called to do
Being what they're called to be
One with us together
When you are faced with a change that is this significant
To allow yourself to go through the process
And acknowledge that grief and loss
And then, like when you lose a loved one
What do you do with that grief and loss?
You can remain better, you can fight it
Or you can say, well this change is coming
What can I do to make this
The best it can be? How can I be a part of this?
I want to be represented
We got a grant for this community here
To begin recreating the forest that was here
A minute with the kids sometime at the end of the night
To teach them how to plant acorns
And I saved a bunch from the neighborhood
That's awesome
It sounds
Thank you
