Horticulture Park

“Ordinarily I go to the woods alone, with not a single friend, for they are all smilers and talkers and therefore unsuitable.”

I know that it is winter, and that many of you, particularly those from warmer climes, may recoil at this idea. However, I must propose that visiting the Horticulture Park in January may be one of the best decisions that anyone could make in the Lafayette area.

The barren trees are not ugly. Rather they are stripped to their most essential elements, displaying the foundation of their beauty. It is possible to see much further throughout the little wood without so much leaves and underbrush. And the sounds seem to carry much clearer. I could hear the woodpecker so distinctly, and I could even hear the sound a squirrel makes when chewing its food up in the tree branches. It sounds gross but it wasn’t.

“I don’t really want to be witnessed talking to the catbirds or hugging the old black oak tree. I have my own way of praying, as you no doubt have yours.”

The Horticulture Park belongs to Purdue University and is situated near the corner of State St./State Rd. 26 and McCormick Rd. There is no cost to enter. I do wish to avoid ‘Purdue’ places and events in this blog, but the Horticulture Park must be the exception. I am from a place where a national forest was my back yard (literally) and I sometimes miss the quiet it can bring. The Horticulture Park is small, like a child of those great woods, but it is still something quite marvelous.

I will admit that I did something strange on my first winter visit there a week ago. I sat on a bench I came across and read poetry out loud. (Just a couple poems). And I could read them out loud, for there was not another person there. Later I saw a lone runner heading for one of the trails, but that was it.

“Besides, when I am alone I can become invisible. I can sit on the top of a dune as motionless as an uprise of weeds, until the foxes run by unconcerned. I can hear the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing.”

I plan to return to the Horticulture Park this winter, and to return often. I saw an article recently about something called ‘forest bathing’ (or something close to that) for relaxation, which I found to be an absurd name initially. But it is relaxing and a reminder that whatever things I am worrying about are quite small after all. So, I say: Go! Go to the Horticulture Park, whether it be alone or with a friend. (Website: http://www.arboretum.purdue.edu/come-learn/horticulture-park/). And if you would like, I would probably be happy to go with you.

“If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love you very much.”

(Poem is Mary Oliver’s How I Go to the Woods)

(Photos to be added after next visit)