A Founding Virtue Still Appreciated

I find myself on a dirt path with not a 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 arrangement 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.
The qualities of Cherokee Park I hold close to my heart are not uncommon to other park lovers. The same qualities were what Frederick Law Olmsted founded Cherokee Park upon over one-hundred and twenty years ago. Olmsted’s thoughts were made apparent in his creations. The Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy, Inc shared his views of Cherokee Park stating that, “For a balanced life, Olmsted realized, people need contact with nature. The parks would provide that, green oases that would relieve the stresses that came with close living conditions, poor air quality, lack of peace and solitude.” This realization has strong integrity when one may find themselves visiting or exploring Cherokee Park. Even a hundred years ago people saw the importance of nature and its diverse offerings in their lives.
I reflect upon the same thoughts that pierced the great mind of Frederick Olmsted 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 intense heat 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 also envision the people of this community one-hundred years ago. They sat in the park as well and let their eyes gaze at the beautiful trees and surroundings. They as well as I had a source of peace and tranquility. This same peaceful location and 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.
The Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy, Inc notices this needed respect and acts upon it. They continue to help maintain Cherokee Park and its trails with volunteer work as well as ideas for the future. One of their proposals is a one-mile paved circuit. This proposal, similar to a dirt trail in visual surrounding, would give more room for visitors to indulge in the parks true beauty. The proposal states that “The one-mile paved circuit will offer visitor wayside shelters, rustic footbridges over Beargrass Creek, connections to bridle and other trails and signage telling the story of the park.” Citizens as well as tourists who have not had the opportunity to experience the park’s offerings will have one more area than before calling their name. They would be able to see the elegance of Cherokee Park on a more accessible note. If they are not able to escape into the backwoods and trails this circuit would allow them to see some of the parks story of a calming natural environment in a more modernized sense. This is generous and should be greatly appreciated because it allows a more diverse crowd to come and enjoy the calming effects of nature.
It is a very humble experience when I allow my mind to escape into the trail and history. 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 before my eyes. 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 on their faces as they nod passing by. It amazes me to think of the men and women that shared similar emotions as me over a century ago. No matter how old the park gets it will always allow one to use it for the same reasons Frederick Olmsted created it on.
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. Perhaps one hundred years ago men and women experienced the same situations in their time and were saddened to be leaving their escape. I reflect on the history of park visitors such as myself as my black car sucks the sun into its windows boiling my 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 gluing my lower back 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.

Works Cited
Bridge in Cherokee Park. Bridge in Cherokee Park. Louisville, Ky. 1905.