Finding What Is Lost

A place I discovered/was told about during my first visit to Columbus back in July was this beautiful neighborhood of Columbus called the German Village. I was told there was great food, books, and a park there, and that I definitely needed to check it out.

The last time I spent any serious time there, it was 90 degrees, humid, and I was in between days of interviews and the last thing I wanted was to be surrounded by people I didn't know. I instead spent a few hours at The Book Loft, an awesome book store in the neighborhood, which was air conditioned and well...had lots of books (shocker). But it was beautiful and I loved every second of it.

On Friday I decided that with everything that has been happening lately, I needed to take some time to get away from campus. What better way to do this than to go back to one of the places that helped me to originally fall in love with this wonderful city?

I took a book with me and headed out. My destination once I got there was Schiller Park. The park includes some awesome statues and plaques full of quotes, both in German and English. After finding parking (which is free there, a rarity for anything so close to downtown), I settled in near the fountain and the pond under the shade of a tree, plugged in my headphones to my phone, turned on some Mumford and Sons, and began to read.

I found myself as I read constantly looking up to observe the scenery around me. There were a lot of people at the park, but not so many that I felt crowded in by them. People walked by with their dogs, others passed by on their daily run. Still others came past on bicycles...either returning from school or work...or just enjoying the beautiful late summer day. Others lay out on blankets and lawn chairs with books or other projects, lost to the world around them. Others still threw food into the pond for the ducks to fight over. Nearly all of the ducks in the pond had flocked to the one side where the food was being thrown. A family sat across the pond from me with their very young baby. I couldn't help but wonder if this was the baby's first time to the park, and what it must be like to experience something so new and wonderful at such a young age.

After a while I returned to my book, having chosen the novelization of one of my favorite video games as the book I was choosing to escape the world with. I read, I listened to music, I enjoyed the ambient sound of the fountain in the pond interrupted only by a duck here and there chasing a stray piece of bread.

I was calm and at peace surrounded by so many people and yet still lost to the world. If it hadn't been for the rumbling of my stomach signaling the time for dinner, I would have sat in that park until it became too dark to continue reading.

I took a walk around the park on my way back to my car and passed through the area with quotations on the ground. One in particular stuck out to me.

"What one does not give up was never lost'-Mary Stuart

I thought about it for a few moments, and took in the truth of the words. Too often do I feel like I have lost something...whether it's a part of myself taken away by time or circumstances, or a friendship or relationship I once had. But the quote made me think that perhaps I haven't lost them. I simply have given them up for the betterment of myself. And if it's not something I've given up, then perhaps it is still there somewhere if I look hard enough.

And for me, lately, I feel that I had lost that sense of serenity and peace. But in that park, I found it again. So maybe it wasn't lost. It was just waiting for me when I was ready to have it again.

Such beauty so close to a bustling downtown gives me hope....hope that even in our crazy busy lives we can still find time to relax and enjoy the simple pleasures in life. Hope that the wonders and beauties of nature and its surroundings will not be lost on generations to come.

And a optimistic hope that no matter how hard life can get...there is always a beautiful sanctuary waiting for you, so long as you take the time to find it.