My Love Affair with Walking in Central Park

I have always been a lover of the outdoors as far back as I can remember. Any chance that I could be outdoors, I was. This never left me but like most of us, life became more hectic, more responsibilities, more requests to be somewhere to do something and that meant being indoors. I lived along the beach in Florida for 15 years and while those days were beautiful and scenic, I was never the all-encompassing beach lover. I went almost every day to get run along the shore or go for a swim in the ocean but stopped wanting to sit on the beach by the time I hit the age of 30. While the beach was always beautiful to me and soothed me it wasn’t where I longed to be.

I moved back to NYC at the end of 2009 and with that became the “need” to introduce my Florida dog, Blarney, to her new lifestyle of becoming a city dog and taking her to the nearest park, which was Central Park. I would walk her happily in sun, rain, sleet, and snow every single day. Often we would be there twice a day and often we would be in the park for more than an hour or so a day, my work schedule permitting of course. When there would be an impending snowstorm we would be there for often 2 hours at a time.

Blarney sadly passed away in November of 2015 and I thought that I would no longer have that desire to walk in Central Park without her. I thought that I was going truly for her. I mean I always loved being there but always thought it was for her benefit, not really mine. I quickly realized that my desire to be there was stronger than ever and now I walked even further than when I had her. I noticed that I was lingering and taking pictures every day.

It dawned on me, this place, this magical place was 843 acres of healing and wellness for me. It not only was constant movement and exercise for my body but my soul was happy there, my heart was happy when I was there. Every day was different, the seasons brought new colors, new scents, new temperatures, a new landscape each and every day.

Each day I recognized that I was becoming more in tune with my body much more so than I ever experienced when I did yoga or any other form of training. It was a form of meditation and yoga for my brain while fully feeling my experience while I was walking / hiking. It was not only a place of respite and serenity it was an energy source for my soul and in a city as crowded and hectic as NYC, this was better than I could have imagined. I felt healthier, as I knew my mind was fully present in where I was. Over the years I began noticing the types of trees and how they evolved and changed through the course of the seasons, the flowers and exactly what week of the year they would begin to bloom. The snow makes me feel like a child and I run out of my apartment door with my camera in hand to begin taking pictures as soon as the ground / trees begin to have coverage.

The park has become the place where my heart is happiest.