Excursion to Inwood Hill Park

It seems stress is inevitable.  Our bodies are made to do it and they do it in order to survive.  We should be thankful that we have this incredible ability.  Without it perhaps life would seem empty, boring, meaningless.  We become stressed because something matters and we are called to respond to it with our whole being.  But what to do about it?  Sometimes it's useful to have that added adrenaline.  It gives us the energy to push through an all-nighter, tough week, a race, an audition.  But often it is out of our control and then grows out of proportion.  What to do?

I think we have a lot of control over stress, actually.  There are many responses to it, some more healthy than others.  People meditate, say affirming things to themselves, drink herbal tea.

Today, Andrew and I wanted to do something, so we took a 1 train up to 207th Street to go to Inwood Hill Park.   We walked through an hispanic neighborhood with lots of used appliances and clothes being sold on the street and grocery stores with Spanish labeled produce until we got to the entrance of the park.  People often say that they think they would miss greenery living in New York City, but there is actually a lot of nature here, in its own urban way.  We walked up the hill through the woods, and found a little spot on the black top turn around near the top to look over the connection of the Hudson and the Harlem Rivers.  Trains went along the north side and across the bridge, a highway flowed behind us, but there were dried leaves on the ground, the rustle of the wind through the bare branches of the trees.   We walked down and found a climbable tree and a dog park, reminders of a different frame of mind.

If we can focus on the source of stress, perhaps it can be moderated in such a way that we can use it as needed and disregard it as needed.  But quite often, a reminder of the other options for living can help center us as well.  Nature is always such a calming resource, and it is true that some of the stillness that it can engender is not as prevalent in New York City as other parts of the country and the world.  There are still many people on the paths, people who are not in the hiking mode of friendly greeting, but rather in the city mode of blindly passing.

But still, it is something.  It is a small reminder–and perhaps even more stark and necessary in the fast-paced, kowtowing, driven attitude of New York–that there is another life, a life that existed long before us and will likely continue after us.  Nature provides a bit of respite, a humbling opportunity in the midst of a stressfully ego-centered life.