An Appreciation of Its Elegance

I find myself on a dirt path with not soul near to me. The blue sky and scorching sun illuminate what lay before my eyes. Brown trees and earth accompany billowing clouds of green over my shoulders. Rocks of all shapes and sizes situate themselves as obstacles on the course I travel. The leaves ruffle against each other as the wind bends the thin tree trunks and smacks branches against one another. Squirrels pounce from place to place shuffling the twigs and leaves they pounce upon. You can hear the constant stream of water as it flows over rocks and logs in the background. All else is of no importance at this time.
I am too caught up in the highly technical lifestyles we live today to go without a release from time to time. Some days I am just as well off standing in the heart of Times Square. Taxi drivers blast their horns at every chance. People impatiently shove their way through a crowded street. Lights and visual propaganda piled high at every corner. Sometimes that highly stressful environment is raging in between my ears. Thus I always find myself running back to the peaceful trails of Cherokee Park.
There are good days and bad. Things change over time. What always remains the same in my eyes is nature. Its elegance never seizes to amaze me. The perfect formation of trees and earth’s creations that accompany my path is always present. The trees and friendly noises from the local animals and natural sounds are always there. They let me use their elegance to cleanse my mind without asking anything of me. They are history. There are so many thoughts you could ponder while in the presence of such a precious yet simple environment. Who once lived here before? Who appreciated this environment before I had the privilege? I find that my mind runs off on many different tangents while in the presence of this great atmosphere. When I am here I have the ability to let my mind run wild and pursue any thought that comes to me. I am at peace with myself as well as my surroundings because of the relaxation and peace I am able to experience because of nature’s elegance.
As I stride further through every bend and curve on the trail I lose myself more and more to the nature that engulfs me. My body purifies in many ways along the journey. The toxicity of pollution from the city and immoral bandwagon stereotypes poison me. I release these negative thoughts through each breathe I take on my trail and every bead of sweat that rolls off my face. My mind untangles itself from thoughts of the outside world. My skin begins to perspire as I fight the blinding rays of sun that find cracks between the flexing leaves in the olive canopy above. There is no real sense of time as I trek further and further. My body exhausts in the head and strenuous trail I hike. Often I find a soft and inviting tree trunk to stop and rest upon.
As I sit on the earth resting against a tree’s body I gaze at the still life that presents itself before me. Each visit to Cherokee Park allows me to leave with a new image in my mind. When I am at work or in school and need a temporary pleasant thought I can reflect upon these graceful views of woodlands. These images help alleviate my mind of stress or anxiety when there is too much chaos going on. I have a new purpose to go back to my favorite trails each week. The trails I traverse are fuel for my body. Not only does it cleanse by body at the site but it offers a visual that is able to relax my thoughts in times of need. The prominence of our simple and precious earth that can be witnessed as a dirt trail with surrounding colorful trees, rocks, diverse wildlife, and harmonizing water deserves much appraisal and respect.
It is a very humble experience when I allow my mind to escape into the trail. When I wind down I am able to see beyond the trees and nature in front of me. I see a vast number of years and history. How did the park get the name Cherokee Park? Who once lived on the land that I walk along? There is so much to learn about something that interests me as well as others so much. As I leave the trail and head back to our highly industrialized and high strung society I see others who are running from their outside life as I had moments earlier. They begin to make their way into the woods to unwind and let their mind run wild with the squirrels scattering up and down trees. I see the positive moods and smiles in their smiles as they nod passing by. I am jealous as it is my time to return to my modern day, two ton, mode of transportation.
After I enter back into my reality and the real world I immediately think of the refreshing experience I just encountered. Shortly after I am back in traffic and cursing the headaches I acquire from it. I enter back into the world of urgency and highly stressful situations at every corner. My black car sucking the sun into its windows boils by skin as I sit. The rush is on to get home as I need to be at work in nearly an hour. However, I had never left the dirt underneath my feet. I am still sitting with the perspiration on my back gluing my body to the oak tree I rest on. I am back listening to the squirrels scrambling through brush and the wind howling through the trees. The elegance of the trail I had just observed was still fresh in my mind helping me cope with the difficult realities I face once again.