A walk in the park
You walk outside after days being inside your home, due to the bad weather. It has been raining, dampness of the earth has not yet dried up, even over the concrete pavements, smell of soil comes out squeezed along with the sprouts of fresh blossoms. It is already the spring, yet the weary sun has not been able to melt away the coldness of the winter yet. Still two low on the horizon struggling to come out, just like you this morning. Yet it is strong enough to cast a way a long shadow over the rows of houses. Young enthusiastic, crowd out of their homes, hurry up along the lane down towards the more popular park in the heart of the small town. There are plenty of people, plenty of pavemented paths, and enough recreational areas in the park. However, you chose to walk the other way, towards the south park where there are no concrete, less families, but only occasional solo runner or a dog walker is there. Even the dogs are white fang type, as it is no place for posh cute little puppies or more commonly their owners to hang around.
After the less affluent row of houses, you reach middle class houses of the neighborhood with houses built few feet away from the road. Just one or two perches of affluence is visible. And you wonder how much effort owner of these houses put into those extra space and wonder whether it is worth it. As a cold breeze bring you back to the road, you notice almost at the end of the road, and cross it to enter the park, not from the main entrance but, small opening which is there for dog walkers and cyclists to enter, a less popular corner of the park, where there are tall trees and moldy smell all around. Rotten leaves of the autumn wetted by the winter still struggle to dissolve into the earth. You straight away step on a mud and realize your shoe slightly heavier and stickier. Getting thicker and thicker with each step you take with more and more sand mixed with mud. There is no escape from this, just like after the morning meal today, that your tongue struggled for half an hour to remove small bit of fiber stuck in your teeth, you try to remove the mud just by dragging your foot on the sand. After a while it starts to feel like working, and now you can properly attend to the nature and the sounds of the park. You walk deeper inside to get away from the noises of speeding cars on the main road, which is more pronounced due to the long straight stretch of the road, neighboring the park.
I was in the park yesterday
And saw this beauty under my feet
Like everyone else I tried to capture it
In a terrible terrible feeble attempt when no-one else to witness
Ashamed of myself when I left,
I saw she smile in silence.
After the tall trees, there comes the meadows, and marsh lands. Covered with various grass, you continue to walk along the footpath towards the lake, occasionally crossed by the dandelions afloat. And you took the next turn, to the lake. You can see a viewing deck, with a fence from a little distance, and a group of ducks gathered around expecting visitors. You spend couple of minutes by the lake and once or twice a couple or a group visited while you just were a bystander, and left leaving you into the solitude you seek. And it is magical to breath the fresh air of the early spring, unspoiled yet from the dust and the smoke of the city. And you realize, it doesn't matter a walk. It doesn't matter a walk, throughout the entire park, as all you have to see is here, just at this very moment. All the happiness, all your life, all the sadness, all your life is just packed in this one second, or a fraction of a second. It doesn't matter a walk. So, you give up your entire idea of walking all around the park, and sit beneath a tree, on a bench of wood, away from the main road to contemplate your thoughts.
Old twig stood so proud
With all the medals of fungi on its coat
When it hugged the ground with rest of the twigs
He was a hero among ordinary in peace at last
On the bench sitting looking at the lake over some bush, with dried up twigs, you hear two ducks, playing around unseen, not unheard. And you notice the bee buzzing at your foot trying to land on a small yellow flower. You realize, it is just like scrolling through the Facebook. The mind, which wants to sit, just a second ago, wants to stand and walk now. And the eyes want to absorb the beauty, hence you say enough. Enough my friend, this is as far as I would go. Let's stop here and observe. And for a good half an hour you let the mind be, without judgment, letting the thoughts drift like clouds. And on your way home, snap some photos, as evidence that you have been there.
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