This Is Also New York City 🌲🌇🌳🌌

Yesterday, my son and I took an impromptu walk. As we walked, we ended up at one of the city’s countless parks. As we walked through the park, I realized how peaceful and removed from the hustle and bustle of the city I felt even though I was less than two blocks away from a main street. And then another realization came to me, this is also New York City.

This morning I couldn’t stop thinking of the stark contrast between the woodlands that we walked through yesterday and the City of New York as the world knows it. So I did a little research and what I found was awe-inspiring.

“New York City has about 30,000 acres of public parkland across its five boroughs. The largest individual park is at Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, spanning 2,765 acres. Central Park is about 843 acres. For context, NYC’s total land area is roughly 193,000 acres, so public parkland accounts for roughly 15–16% of the city’s land area.

New York City’s parks include a diverse mix of forests, meadows, grasslands, marshes, wetlands, coastal habitats, gardens, and landscaped areas, creating a patchwork of natural ecosystems that support a wide variety of trees, native plants, wildlife, and recreational spaces across the five boroughs.”

As I read this information, I was reminded of the park my son loved when he was younger. Shirley Chisholm State Park. Located right in Brooklyn, it’s a 407 acre waterfront park consisting of terrain that includes beachfront, wetlands, and woodlands. It was built atop an old landfill and features miles of biking and walking trails, kayak launches, fishing piers, and environmental education programming. The programming was my son’s favorite. It’s where we created flowers from recycled materials for Mother’s Day. Where we made Christmas wreaths by hand. Where we observed, caught, and tagged a monarch butterfly for her trip to Mexico. It was where my son first used a telescope to discover the night sky. And it was where where my son first learned how beautifully the universe works.

See it took place a few years ago in the fall. The park was having a Halloween themed event. Since I don’t prefer to take my son trick or treating because collecting bags of candy is just not something I want him to practice, I decided that this would be the perfect event to have some themed fun without the sugar crash. When we got to the park they were having a raffle for a new bike. My son had been asking for a bike but we just hadn’t gotten around to getting him one since the seasons were changing. We filled out our information for the raffle and continued to enjoy the other activities the park had to offer. When the time came for the winner of the raffle to be chosen my son and I went back to the raffle table and watched as the winner’s name was drawn. When my son realized that he did not win, I could see the disappointment on his face. And so could the employees of the park who knew him very well from the many times we visited. The employee who had drawn the name called the winner and confirmed that they would be coming to pick up the bike. As we were leaving the park, my son tearfully explained how much he wanted the bike. That’s when I saw an opportunity to help him practice something that would change the trajectory of his life. I told him that if he really wants a bike, he should just put that desire out to the universe and then trust that the universe will find a way to deliver. If it wouldn’t be through this raffle, it would come in another way. Somehow he understood. He calmed down and we continued on with our day.

A few months later, one of the park employees gave me a call. They asked if we were still interested in the bike because the person who won it, never came to pick it up. And just a few short days later we picked up the bike for my son. That day he felt immense joy and learned an invaluable lesson on how to co-create using universal truths.

So in conclusion, this is also New York City. The concrete jungle, the woodlands, and the lessons that last a lifetime.