“With beauty before me, may I walk
With beauty behind me, may I walk
With beauty above me, may I walk
With beauty below me, may I walk
With beauty all around me, may I walk
Wandering on the trail of beauty, may I walk”
Navajo: Walking Meditation
Did someone say walk???
As in a stroll?
As in an outing?
As in outside?
And so as the notion of a nice leisure stroll was considered…
we decided to venture out for a walk.
We ventured forth…
We ventured out.
We ventured up
And we ventured away…
Away throughout a city that magically transforms itself into something else and
into something so much more…
But it takes a bit of really hard looking…looking in just the right places…
to see what makes a certain ordinary and otherwise crowded, noisy place…
something so much better than what one quickly sees when looking at things with a cursory
first glance.
All strapped in and ready go, after multiple outfit changes, we departed…
We first walked the three-mile loop around Chastain Park.
A 268-acre wedge-shaped park, the largest park in the city of Atlanta that happens
to be in the northeast area of the city and only about 3 miles from where I grew up.
It’s a park where I first learned to swim.
The park where my dad took me when I was a little girl to go sledding in my first
real snow.
The park where I attended the yearly Brownie and Girl Scout jamborees.
The park where my brother played little league baseball.
The park with the swingset where I secretly rendezvoused meeting the boy I had a
crush on in the 8th grade…
And the place where my mom learned to play tennis…a game that actually helped
my mom find her own place in life.
Originally the land belonged to the Creek Indians but in 1840, 1000 was acquired by the
state of Georgia.
There would be built an almshouse and a TB sanatorium as well as a paupers cemetery.
Eventually, in the mid-1940’s, a golf course was designed, a community pool was built,
an amphitheater was created, riding stables and a barn were added as well as
cabins and cookout areas….as the almshouse and sanatorium were eventually transformed
into a private school.
A school that has only grown in size and scope along with the growing park.
Chastain is now the site of the city’s major outdoor concert venue.
But we were ready and even excited to take in what this transforming area had to offer…
Walks and parks are always good for both body and soul.
But they can be exhausting…
Here’s to many more days of walks in the park…
Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you,
so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.
Deuteronomy 5:55
cookiecrumbstoliveby 
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Oh to the days when I’d take my wee ones for a walk in the park. Yesterday, we ventured out into the world of fantasy and Star Wars. My granddaughter, her grandpa and me went to see the new movie “Solo.” Not my cup of tea, but being together, no matter the age is a bonus. Love all of your photos.
Oh Brenton is dying to go see that movie—he’s such a Star Wars kid—but moppie has left and gone home today—so they will have to wait to another time when I’m back to babysit…
You’ll never believe this, but i fell asleep for a moment. Those reclining seats are so comfy and their heated too so it’s like laying on a heating by pad. Kaeli poked me and said, wake up grandma, you’re snoring 😳
now that sounds like Gregory—or even Abby.
They’d go late to a movie when she was pregnant and had taught and commuted all day..but my movie aficionado son would beg.
They’d go, and as you say, those seats are so comfortable…Abby would fall fast asleep and snore away…
🙂
Speaking of walking, my daughter just completed the Camino – all of it! She returns home today and I’m sure she feels a great sense of accomplishment.
The photos are wonderful – especially the last one of Autumn sleeping.
Oh my gosh—that is one of the top things on my bucket list. I use to tell my aunt that was our next big adventure and she would almost look at me panic stricken 🙂
I often wonder if her early departure from this world was not her way of getting out of walking such an ardous trek and sleeping here, there and yon—I think the thought of sleeping communally…here, there and yon was the kicker 😉
Aw, all those new experiences and all that fresh air makes wee ones so sleepy. Lovely photos. 🙂
I’m just so glad that they have such a place so close to them. Here we live out in a more rural area and we don’t have such…but it is most needed in the big city!!!
Essential. I can’t imagine living in a place with no greenery without going insane!
I totally agree Sarah—there are day’s I swear I could never move back to Atlatnta…but at least they have parks and plenty of great places to eat 🙂 so much choice that I am not accustomed to here 🙂
So were you always a country girl at heart or did it just grow on you?
I was born and raised in Atlanta but loved those times I got to go camping or off wandering to the woods. Now granted when I was little, Atlanta was not the size it is today…there were a lot of undeveloped areas…fields not far away, etc.
It also helps that a major river, The Chattahoochee, meanders its way through the city allowing for green space and parks.
But there was always a spirit of wanting to be out of doors…a tom boy…who embraced being a girl scout (camping) then working as a camp counselor up in the mountains of NC during college…
After college, I moved to Carrollton—a more rural area about an hour away from Atlatnta…
and married a country boy who is a huge outdoorsman—hunter, fisherman…
so the more I’ve been here, I have embraced the outside …but I do enjoy visiting the city 🙂
😀 So the city’s good for short vacations and baby-sitting trips but not for permanent living? Atlanta sounds like it used to be a good place to grow up. I grew up in small rural towns in Wales but I like London in much the same way as you like modern Atlanta (though I don’t have any grandchildren there yet).
There are pros and cons—as times change, those cons grow…but I still enjoy visiting and visiting those pro aspects…but as I say…our city’s con’s are growing.
And I dare say that is a troubling bubbling below the surface.
But for now—what the city has to offer and of the variety of choice—is quite nice…but it’s also nice to be able to escape it all 🙂
I get you. 🙂
Sorry for the delay. I don’t know where the time goes!
well, I meant to respond to your comment the other day regarding age and I’m just remembering that…
I like you have always looked younger than I was…maybe not now, but back in the day 🙂
I can remember going to lunch once with my mom. I was married so I was 23 or beyond.
We ordered a glass of wine with our meal…the waiter carded me.
I was so mad. Here I was “grown” a married woman, teacher and I was getting carded.
Growing up in Georgia, the legal drinking age was 18. It wasn’t until after I was out of college that they upped it to 21.
For someone who had been leagaly getting alcohol since 18 I was mad that at 25 or so someone saw differently.
Well at almost 59, I think I wouldn’t so much mind that now 😉
They say I still don’t look my age…but those wrinkles and graying hair just don’t lie 🙂
No, you still look younger than your age in the photos. 🙂
We had a power outtage yesterday so that’s part of my excuse – no Internet for most of the day. Storm Hector was wild. Spent part of the evening chopping up a small downed tree which was blocking the road.
Sounds like the gully washer we had in Atlanta Monday night. Trees on houses, limbs in the streets…and that was just a thunder storm…
and thanks about the compliment…I have a friend who is doing her darndest to stop the aging…dying her hair, working out till the cows come home, botox, nips and tucks…and I think for what?!
I’m a what you see is what you get kind of gal.
No dyes, no nothing…but too much butter 🙂
Yup, I’m what you see is what you get too. Perhaps it’s because we’ve got such great husbands who love us despite the ravages of time…? Plus maybe we’re not so worried about what age implies – the Four Last Things and all that they imply.
Kindred souls 🤩
🙂 But not the butter, I don’t eat butter. My problem’s just tasty food in general!
Okay, you live in Ireland but don’t eat butter…hummm..I’ll just chalk that up to your British roots :)…but that still shouldn’t exempt you—butter is my utter demise 🙂
My son had severe lactose intolerance when he was small so we cut right down on the dairy. I don’t like the taste of it now. Well, except for cheese. It’s hard to dislike cheese…
I’ve always been if Julia Child’s mindset—“if you dont like butter, use cream” 😎
Heh, heh. Gotta keep the fat content up otherwise it just doesn’t taste right, eh? I’m afraid low dairy doesn’t exempt me from fat. I go for full fat everything; coconut milk, lashings of oil, avocados and nuts and all those other things dieters look on with trepidation. Never done a fad diet in my life. 🍰
Me either 🤩
👍
Ahhhh, so, so sweet! Reminds of that hymn,the song, “I come to the Garden Alone.” Also, it’s warm where you live! No fair. 🙂
Thanks IB—yep, we are in full summer mode complete with our heavy veil of humidity 🙂
I came home today, but I know they will keep up the walks 🙂
Kewl beans…
Aww, she is so CUTE, and her expressions!
Blessings~
she is a hoot…an exhausting hoot, but a hoot none the less 🙂
Aww, I bet she’s just precious!
thanks Robbye Faye 🙂
Such a beautiful day you had with your princess Autumn! Ah for a walk in the park! So lovely! ❤ ❤
adorable…. the photos are a priceless addition to a wonderful post! Hugs to you for sharing your walk with all of us!
Thank you Dawn Marie—love digging deeper from the ordianry surface…especailly with someone precious 🙂
Remembering those days ~~~~~~~~~
How adorable is your granddaughter! That’s also an interesting Marine Corps Memorial too…
Thank you Jim—yes, we were walking around the loop and got to the corner near what was once a major Atlanta high school…but now is a middle school.
If you grew up in Atlanta, you knew Dykes High School. So cruious, I stopped to see what the memorial was for…I was surprised to see it was a memorial for a fallen Marine from Vietnam…a Marine who had attended Dykes as well as Georgia Tech.
I thought it a wonderful tribute and had to include it…too many folks never stop to take note of such…which is a pity.
As a former Marine and also from a family who fought and escape communism during the Vietnam war there’s a soft spot I have for Vietnam war era Marines
a great story Jim…and how awesome of you to have given back with your own service.
Did you ever read my post from a few years back about the POW bracelet I wore?
Lt Col. James Young—a prisoner for nearly 8 years.
If not, I’ll send the link. If so…I loved that it lead to my being able, after all of these years later, to give the bracelet to his daughter.
Wow I need to read that…
https://cookiecrumbstoliveby.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/an-overdue-thank-pow-lt-col-james-young/
after a couple of years after I first wrote the post, the youngest daughter of Lt. Col Young found my blog and commented.
We exchanged emails and I finally sent her the bracelet.
I’ve been amazed over the years how many folks out of the blue will find the post and comment that they too had worn his bracelet…
Wow I need to read it when I get home
This is so dear! All that excitement at the beginning. But goodness, just how much can a little one take without a nap. She is precious. Hope you can continue this stroll until such time as she can hear the stories it brings to your mind. Lovely.