Time has gotten so far away from me. It's now been well over a month since my trip to New York City and a month since my last Wednesday Walk post where I took you on a tour of Lower Manhattan. Today, we're centering our walk in beautiful Central Park.
I have long said that if you visit New York, you need a guide. My guide today was my dear friend and "adopted" nephew Daniel.
Daniel is the founder and teacher of Maximum New York. Maximum New York is an amazing project trying to truly bring about an abundance mindset in the political arena in New York City. It has deep applications for many other communities as well.
Daniel was kind enough to meet me at my hotel. We hopped on the subway and headed to the Central Park area. We stopped for coffee in a delightful coffee shop which I absolutely forgot to note the name of or take any photos. We walked among the brownstones (and one "whitestone") and even got to see one of those quintessential New York City sidewalk flower stands.
We entered Central Park at Strawberry Fields and began our walk north to Shakespeare Garden.
The weather was absolute perfection for our visit. Upper 60s and gloriously sunny. While the park was busy it was definitely not crowded. It made for an utterly delightful visit.
We paused in Shakespeare Garden for a bit to discuss the principle of freedom and finish off our coffees. Daniel shared a beautiful perspective on freedom and whether we're search for freedom from something or freedom to. I am definitely in the freedom to camp but with a word that has been one of my own personal values for as long as I can remember it was an inspiring and thought provoking conversation.
If you caught my original New York City Wednesday Walk then you know I already found one magical display of tulips. The one here in Shakespeare Garden was a bit less awe inspiring but still beautiful. This definitely has more of a natural - almost "fairy garden" like feel to it.
From Shakespeare Garden we headed to the iconic Belvedere Castle. This is my second visit to Central Park. However, on my first visit we did one of the handsome cab rides and you only got to stop one place. I wanted to stop at Belvedere Castle but it was closed for renovation on that trip so I was excited to finally get to see the Castle.
We continued strolling for a while after leaving Belvedere Castle. I was surprised at how completely serene the experience was of being inside of this beautiful green oasis inside of the busiest city in the world - or at least the busiest city I've ever experienced in the world.
We arrived at Bethesda Terrace which, side note, has a public restroom. My nephew says - when in NYC - go to the bathroom whenever you have a chance! It's sound advice.
We spent some more time chatting and visiting while sitting by the fountain. I felt so very New York! I loved watching all of these people make use of this gorgeous public space. There were folks exercising, dogs playing, artists performing - it was really divine.
We headed under the Terrace and caught a wonderful performance. Daniel shared that his favorite is happening through here when an opera singer is performing. In this words, "It will make you weep."
Our time was coming to an end as I had to start working that afternoon so we headed to Literary Walk.
I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of other Native New Yorkers enjoying the benches of Literary Walk
As we walked, we paused to look at some of the statues and to listen to a few of the tours being led through this area. I'll take my personal tour guide over those experiences every time. The Women's Rights Pioneers statute was, of course, my favorite statue from the walk.
We grabbed a beverage from the vendors near the entrance to the park and sat and chatted some more to wrap up our time together. We even made a cute little raccoon friend who was entirely too used to people for his own safety.
Thanks so much for coming along on my walk through a portion of Central Park. I can't wait to go back again and bring back even more memories from this beautiful park.
Photos were taken with a Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. I chose to do little to no processing from the photos to try to allow you to see Central Park exactly as I saw it. We visited between about 9 - 11 a.m. eastern time on a beautifully sunny day.
