Reflections.

You know I sometimes still think about that Ace of Base song Beautiful Life. Like I said, when I first heard the part about the park it just sounded like something that reminded of that park which I first visited in January 1989. It was always such a peaceful refuge for me and I seemed to have it all to myself. And the song seemed to talk about that with the following lyrics. I've put emphasis where she does:

Take a walk in the PARK when you feel down
There's so many things THERE that's gonna lift you up
See the nature in BLOOM, a laughing child
Such a DREAM, whoa, oh-oh.

Emphasis on "park" like it was talking about my park. "There" referring to all the things to do there. Multiple levels, places to eat, beautiful scenery including the river, all the wildlife there I saw. I even saw a gray fox there once. But when she gets to the next verses, I thought she was saying nature in bloom is a laughing child. Kind of like how I thought of communing with nature like in the book Walden by Thoreau. We studied it in humanities class in Spring of 1988. And I thought of doing that. In fact one day when class was canceled and I was waiting for my parents to pick me up I did in the nearby wooded area of U of M. But when they revealed to me my status of a genius may have been a lie for many years, I thought maybe I enjoy nature more as a laughing child. (I found out this year actually those lyrics list the things you see in a park. Nature in bloom, a laughing child, etc.) And it was a such a dream my park. I dreamt and fantasized of it often. Like I told my 2022 therapist, that park was a powerful symbol in my life.

I was thinking recently that would be something nice to do now. Take walks in parks. It could be a new tradition and it could be however I define it. Because April 3, 1985 I started taking my nightly excursions. My name for my only chances then to be free and explore the outside world. It'd be nice to start taking those again too, in whatever way I can.