The best month to take a walk in the park is October; when the wind can't yet be identified as being icy and the leaves are starting their crisp descent to the moist emerald grass below. Waiting at the base of the trees. Summer is sweet, you can have picnics, fly a kite, or ride a bike all day. The sun gives off strong rays of hot heat which drums off the faces of the people who dare to venture out into the park. Everything is brightly colored, and every glossy surface mirrors the sun and its unique patterns. Yet although those can be really good reasons to go for a walk in summer none can ever compare to an autumn walk.
Many would think of the autumn season as a more sombre season, dark and gloomy, yet no one could ever deny the romance of walking beneath the rich vibrant colored trees down a gravel or dirt path to the small, windy pond that, more often than not, waits at the end. Ducks floating peacefully waiting for their feed from the gracious old folk, the once dark turquoise water now turned a navy blue, only hinting the beautiful sapphire colors it wore so well a few months ago.
People can see that the park is usually and most to always empty in autumn, but occasionally you will pass some women jogging alongside each other, a couple sitting on a bench beneath an old oak tree or an infant jumping into a puddle in bright red rain boots, now tired and battered from the previous adventures from the fierce puddles he dare to disturb. These are just few of all the scraps of happiness you can witness when walking down that gravel park. The rowdy and energetic teenagers and families have all evacuated the grass in its damp, fertile rich state and all that's left is a silence, broken, every now and then, by the small cries of dry, aged leaves stepped on by people walking by here and there.
This is the one of best noises, not deathly silent but just enough to allow you to think peacefully. A moment of reflection and processing which fits the mood that autumn brings, like a glove on a hand; dusty skies and the occasional ray of sunlight that seeps through a small gap in the leaves above you, trickling onto the ground. All the excitement of summer brought to our attention of what we have done, what we have not done, but wishing we have did and what we have become. Sobering our thoughts to help prepare one's self with the up coming holidays and allow yourself to mature, but for just one moment, we are allowed to take in the beauty that surrounds us.
In the silence you can often hear children laugh, their high pitched squeals echoing across to me between the trees or a robin delightfully singing to its audience but no noise can overpower the chorus of leaves lying vulnerable on the ground. They start to scream underneath the soles of the park inhabitants. This sort of noise you can feel all around you; prodding you and sitting in your ears, beating your eardrum with its heavy movements as it passes.
The trees dance to this song of new awakening, their branches swaying in pain, strong unforgiving winds tearing their mighty roots from the vulnerable and fragile soil that lay below it. While also plucking their leaves off one by one until, after weeks of enduring the mocking and torture of the viper wind, the tree sits naked and exposed to a layer of glacial, bitter snow. Before the tree slowly dies as it gives us a show, it saves the most beautiful colors for last. Gone is the basic green of the leaves, in its place, amber, ruby, sun light yellow, and bronze. The autumn has also turned some of the many leaves into the color of dusk. While I look at the branches, I noticed a leaf falls in front of me like a moth not use to the light. When it stopped, it died. No matter how hard it struggled, it still couldn't escape the inevitable, just like humans. Fallen leaves piled up under trees and on the moist grass. They formed various patterns like the mysterious pictures we saw in our confusing dreams, we could not understand. The leaves crispy and jagged around the edges where they have frayed and thin in the middle where they have aged, dry from the severity of the wind. The beauty of the park can fill even the iciest hearts with a sense of belonging and wisdom, wisdom from observing the wonders of the world around them. These trees are not only the residents, but also the guardians of park. Mother Nature showed her masterpieces to us, allowing us a glimpse into her domaine. Humans might treat withered leaves as litter but for trees, they treasured them as invaluable since fallen leaves supplied the indispensable nutrients. Trees grew up and leaves fell, we called this the cycle of life.What better way to spend an autumn morning taking a walk, witnessing the beauty all around us.
You could find more in this walk than in the corners of universe or in a library filled with facts and stories to entertain for hours. Yet, in reality and all honestly, you are not really discovering anything, you are simply realising what was there all along. As if your eyes were covered with a vial and finally it is lifted. We are all different holding our individual views and perceptions of the vast things all around us. "Such individualized behaviour is common while we are absorbed by daily routines and chores, though there is at least one place where we can share common value of relaxation" (Learn why parks are important!). In parks people open up a part of the that is vulnerable, but understands we are protected in the sanctuary we call a park.
The park is just one of those place that we can completely relax but also get surprised by the common interest. While in the park, we forget about our routines and commitments that causes daily stress on our conscious minds and predetermine our activities and decisions. This little feeling alone makes the park a place we associate with relaxation. Along with breathing in the fresh air and enjoying marvellous sceneries we can genuinely relax by simple walking around or sitting on a park bench whistling with the birds or singing a cheering song.
The University of Exeter Medical School is one of the first to study to the effects of living in greener areas, such as parks. What they found was amazing, "on average movers to greener areas experienced an immediate improvement in mental health that was sustained for at least three years after they moved"(Daily Mail). Parks help people in relaxation and finding peace in themselves and around them.
Work Cited
Reporter, Daily Mail. "Why living near a park can help keep the blues at bay: Study finds people who live near green spaces have better mental health." Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 7 Jan. 2014, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2534967/Why-living-near-park-help-blues-bay-Study-finds-people-live-near-green-spaces-better-mental-health.html.
Learn why parks are important! | BREC.Org, www.brec.org/index.cfm/page/1808/n/153.
