A Local Adventure – Stoneleigh

I am a big believer that literature informs travel and vice versa. In The Writing Life Annie Dillard asks, “why are we reading, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed? Can the writer isolate and vivify all in experience that most deeply engages our intellects and our hearts?” She achieves this in her piece Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Reminiscent of Walden by Thoreau, the writing is poetic and descriptive with a focus on nature. Tinker Creek is written as a great wilderness when in reality there were neighborhoods and a highway only a short ways away.

Annie Dillard teaches us a great lesson about learning to explore and appreciate the surroundings we’re in. Many of us take our communities and hometowns for granted. Being in the situation we’re in with COVID-19, this is the perfect time to rediscover our local attractions. Stoneleigh is a 42 acre park owned by the Natural Lands and whose mission is to connect people with the outdoors. Also on the bright side of traveling locally, you help the environment by saving on fuel cost. Traveling by car, especially locally, is better than flying and depending on where you’re going you could consider walking or biking.

This Sunday I woke up at 9, got dressed, drank my Keurig brewed coffee and walked to the park with my camera, music, and tote bag in hand. I did the loop, making sure to honor Annie Dillard and notice all the little details that make this space extraordinary. Already some of the leaves have browned and fallen from the trees. Acorns are littering the ground too. The weather was amazing. It was the first day you could tell autumn is coming, sunny but 75 degrees with a light breeze. It was the perfect, tranquil way to start a Sunday morning. I urge all of you to do the same – get out in nature. Spend as much time in it as you feel is wanting, and let yourself really appreciate the world we have.