Grateful for the Existence of Parks

I dealt with my rage (see previous post) by donating to National Parks Conservation Organization. A little history for those who don't know what the US National Parks are? First of all there are currently sixty-three national parks across fifty states, and here's a complete list of them.
( go here )

Quote for today:

"Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.
Yehuda Berg"

I fear that I am not always careful or mindful of my words, particularly when I'm angry, cranky, or not feeling well, aka my best self. The difficulty with writing on a blog or on social media platforms or texting or emails, is often words get sent without much thought. And are often reactive or just random thoughts? And I've been cranky lately, combination of sleep deprivation and well other things. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and of course it will rain tomorrow - it usually rains when I have a doctor's appointment. And the doctor has been irritating me - they've texted me twenty times informing me of the appointment (I've confirmed five times already), sent a message to their portal, called, and acted like it is my first appointment (it's a follow-up), and want me to enroll in Amazon One, I do not want to enroll in Amazon One for quicker and more secure check in.

It was a lovely day, in the 60s F. Sunny. Nice breeze. Crisp blue sky. So I took a walk at lunch to Battery City Park, which has been rehabilitated. Fresh green grass. An urban garden - which was put in at the prompting of a bunch of high school students who requested a plot of land in the park to plant vegetables.



( more photos )

I sat in one of the little blue plastic chairs in the park (which you can see in one of the photos above, I think), for a bit, basking in the sunshine and grounding myself in nature (such that it is). Watched the high school students tour and learn how to volunteer and work in the urban garden. Then, got up, reluctantly, to leave - and as I was leaving, ran into a mad rush of gift vendors dashing across the park with their stuff - somewhat illegally, I think. Because the police stopped them and pulled them out of the fenced off portion of the park and made them go back out onto the street.

A bit of advice, if you ever decide to visit this portion of New York City and want to go to the Statue of Liberty? Get tickets at Castle Clinton, which is an old ruined historic site towards the West End of the Park or online. You can't get tickets from the people trying to sell them to you at the entrance to the park. They driven me nuts - the ticket vendors. I keep shaking my head at them, whenever they block my path - "no, no, I don't want to go to the Statue of Liberty". Today? The guy in front of me told one of them: "Local". That's all he said, and the vendor jumped back, instantly leaving him alone. I followed his lead and it worked like a charm.

Okay off to bed...leaving you all with a picture of some flowers that I saw in the park.