The Park Is Open

It seems as if it was only yesterday that I moved into my apartment on Logan Street, half a block from the park of Echo Park. It was one of the selling points of why the place we had found was so perfect. I dreamt it up in my mind and it seemed to be sent to us seamlessly in sync with the Universe.

Shortly after we moved in, almost as an ironic joke, the park went under a huge construction that would not finish for two years. We moved in April 2011 and the park was scheduled to re-open in the Spring of 2013. I only had a few mornings running around that beautiful (yet smelly) lake before I was forced to run the perimeters of construction, usually in the street, hoping some distracted LA driver would not hit me with their car.

Though annoyed, I waited patiently with bated breath

Every time I ran by I couldn't help but stand on my tippy toes to see what was happening beyond the CAUTION tape. I’d lift up the tarp on the fence to catch a glimpse of the transformation occurring within its’ borders.

I found out the park would open a week after I had left for South Africa this summer. Well, poo! Fine then. I will wait. For I must.

Now the park is open. As James drove me back from the airport yesterday I marveled at its beauty. It is gorgeous. Randomly scattered about I still find pieces of trash from jerks who seek to degrade the good. Destroy the new. But it doesn't matter.

It’s alive again. With families gathering, friends walking, couples paddle boating, children playing and dogs running. The energy the beautiful transformation of the park has made possible is amazing.

I can’t help but make the connection to the metaphor that the park is like myself in a way. Just getting back from traveling I reflect on my own personal journey of the past two years.

What a difference two years truly can make. Funny to think of how long two years seemed when they boarded it up two years ago. And how like a blink, a wrinkle in time, it is done. Two years has passed. And no matter how much impatience I felt for it “to just be done already”, I know it was well worth the wait seeing what it has become.

Anything worth having is worth waiting for. Anything worth doing is worth putting in the time. And sometimes, though we may not like it – scratch that – we never like it, working on oneself and making a conscious effort to grow and transform takes time. It can be painful. It requires effort and does not happen overnight. But man is it worth it.

I am beyond grateful for the gorgeous park that is now open a half a block away from where I live. And as far as my own transformation, sometimes I can’t find words to describe the gratitude I feel.

Here’s a word: Peace.

I feel peace.