A City Walk

The plan: walk to an office, fill out some paper work, go for coffee, read my book and return home. It was simple enough. A city bus would carry me most of the way there and back. As I stepped on the street I felt a different kind of homeness

The home of this prairie city that is familiar and yet not. After a long absence, changes do not hide the bones of the city I love. Familiar buildings, all of them weathered from hot dusty winds or bitter icy winds. The dry cleaning shop on Albert Street, the library 

with its red, yellow and blue bicycle props, the city park in the city centre with old elm trees shading criss cross sidewalks, a cenotaph the centre ~ people stroll or sit on scattered benches. This world of nostalgia ended with orange wire fencing, the grasping, scraping noise of construction and signs indicating hard hats! Blocked one way, 

I followed a man delivering a bouquet of flowers through the maze. My business complete, I returned to the maze. Trails through the maze led me to the coffee shop. A quieter stroll along store fronts selling 

eye glasses or bride’s dresses took me to the bus stop and home.

“[Walking] is the perfect way of moving 

if you want to see into the life of things.”

~ Elizabeth von Arnim, 

The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen

(August, 1866 - February, 1941)