Is this some remote wooded paradise? Nope, it’s Central Park, smack dab in the center of Manhattan.
One of the things that I’ve always loved about some of the city’s parks is how you can go there, forget that you are in the middle of the most densely-packed, frenetic, frantic city on the continent, and just enjoy a nice, refreshing moment in an oasis of nature surrounded by the concrete, glass and steel jungle.
As New Yorkers, we live our lives minute-to-minute and second-to-second. We hustle here, bustle there, with an endless list of tasks, jobs and things to do. We move with the unrelenting beat of the city that doesn’t sleep and it moves us to be constantly doing, constantly pushing ourselves.
But sometimes, I like to take some time to just be. Even as a lifelong New Yorker, I still sometimes just have the need to put it all aside for a while and just slow down. Sometimes we need to just forget the city and it’s frenzied velocity and just be in a peaceful, serene spot of nature – a spot where the buildings aren’t visible, where the cacophony of the traffic and the pounding of soles on sidewalks can no longer be heard — a spot where calmness can overcome you and all you are surrounded by are the hues and echos of nature.