‘Where is your park’ was the FIRST thing I thought of when I decided to write this. Beyonce said it in her advert for Ivy Park. I never expected to relate the way I do now but I love that for me.
I have a park, a real park. I go for walks there. Most of the time I’m feeling really fucking low, sometimes I just want to clear my head, sometimes I want to breathe properly because sometimes anxiety really does hold my breath, and sometimes I just want to enjoy nature. This is my park, or at least some parts of it (Please note I am not, neither am I even claiming to be a proper photographer. Anything you see just take)
Anyway my park is really close to my house, like a five minute walk. It’s beautiful. Nature that’s been preserved and I wanted to write a little something to pay homage to that because I really do think it’s saved my life more than once. I have never been the type of girl that would go on walks. Walks? For what reason? To do what? But they’ve become so essential to me recently, it’s a little exercise outside yoga. Keeps me active, but also it makes me feel connected to the world. That sounds so lame but I mean it. I don’t feel lonely, or isolated. I feel like I’m part of something way bigger than myself (Beyonce again). That circle of life song from the Lion King comes to mind. It’s a lovely feeling. I get some fresh air, some of that good oxygen straight from the SOURCE, and I’ve also come to appreciate trees A LOT more cause of that. I don’t even want to get too into my feelings about trees (and there’s a lot of them) because I don’t need to cast my insanity on the internet. But I do know when I die I’d like to be cremated and used to plant a tree, and donate some organs too.
In my park there are benches with memorials for people that I thought was pretty beautiful. A nice way to remember your loved one you know? A plaque on a bench in a place they spent a lot of time in and really enjoyed.
Earlier in April we had two days of sun in the UK, and if you’ve ever lived in the UK you KNOW British people go wild for a bit of sun. Everyone goes on picnics and everyone’s skin is out. This year, it was on steroids, which is fair enough since we’d been on lockdown all year. There was this aura of joy everywhere. The sun really does wonders for your mental health, especially in places that are mostly gloomy. The sun comes out and you don’t know how to act. You feel happy, just out and about on a nice sunny day. I went for a walk and my park was SO FULL. EVERYONE had come out. People were having picnics, or just walking around, and that was cute.
But what I really wanted to talk about was the park itself. It was BLOOMING. Spring had arrived and I could see it, I could see life returning to the trees, leaves and flowers growing, animals running around. It was the most beautiful, invigorating thing. I went for walks during the winter and don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful too, a stark, severe kind of beauty. Reminds me of a quote from a book I read
‘Yet there was an attractiveness about her, a sort of severe, merciless beauty’
There’s something very beautiful about snow.
But in spring, things come ALIVE, and I know these things in theory but seeing it in person was very humbling, very lovely. Here are some pictures of my park in winter and spring.
So yeah, that’s about it. This is my park and I am eternally grateful for it
Enjoy some more pictures of me being happy in my park, also enjoy my beauty because it is undeniable and inevitable.
