Dear President Trump,

When the water started coming into the empty reservoir across the street from us last Friday I thought maybe it was a little tiny consolation prize from the universe since all but one GOP Senator (plus one Democrat) signaled their intention to support Brett K’s nomination that day. I know it’s a silly idea, but still, it was an incredibly nice surprise in the midst of a whole lot of incredibly awful non-surprises. When I noticed that the bottom of the reservoir was covered with water that morning I was puzzled at first because since it was drained 5 years ago, the bottom has only been barely covered after sustained heavy rains and we’d just had a few relatively brief showers. Then I saw the big spout of water and realized they are filling it – it was so exciting! Even with the barbed wire fence around the perimeter, the filled reservoir was always so soothing and beautiful, reflecting the trees on the far side and shimmering a tiny bit all the time. And now we are getting it back.

The reservoir is 20 feet deep, covers about 8 acres, and holds 50 million gallons of water, which is a mind boggling amount and which is probably going to take another 12 days to accumulate (we are about a third of the way there after 6 days). Basically, it’s been quite a huge black hole in the ground for a very long time.

The city of Seattle doesn’t make it easy to find out what is going on with such things so I’ve not been able to find anything online about the decision to fill it. My guess is that they finally realized that the reservoir up the street isn’t going to suffice to cover the population growth in this area. The density is increasing dramatically in the mile or so radius around the new light rail station nearby and we are probably already straining the infrastructure a lot. Ever since it was drained, those of us who live nearby have wondered what was going to happen with that parcel of land. Given its size and location it seemed likely the city would sell it to developers and further increase density. That could still happen in the future (and they could put some sort of ugly tarp over it in the meantime), but for now we are breathing a somewhat selfish sigh of relief to have the water back.

May we be safe to enjoy pleasant views.
May we be happy to notice positives that pop up.
May we keep our emotional and spiritual health solid with frequent doses of beauty.
May we be ok with having moments when we feel at peace.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson