A walk in the Park

"Life ain't just a walk in the park"...

How many times have you heard that one? Growing up with two very realistic parents, I had that drilled into my head, and they didn't leave the other bases untouched either... life is also not "a free lunch" "a bowl of cherries" "fair" "an easy ride".. you get the picture. If you can add onto the mantras then a cookie for you... or maybe a box of chocolates, since that seems to be the only thing life actually is.

I've lived by these little nuggets of information most of my life, and truth be told it has proven helpful in many situations... I was never the girl with unrealistic expecations for my boyfriends, if it ended... well, "life ain't fair". Whenever something drastic happened, a death, job loss, driving in teh wrong direction for 234 mi, etc.... It was always easier to not panic if you knew that life "isn't a bowl of cherries" (although I would strongly not reccommend saying that to anyone who happens to encounter one of those situations or life may come to an abrupt halt for you :))

The other day some friends and I were enjoying the beautiful weather in Piedmont Park. The sun was shining, the air was cool, if there had been birds then I think they would have been singing... We pulled out a frisbee and had many failed attempts at hand-eye coordination, but we had fun. Then we took a walk. Yes, a walk in the park. We strolled along the faded asphalt of the bike paths, watched mothers and their children feed the ducks by a Grecian Gazebo, commented on the beauty each dog being thrown a frisbee by its master, and watched with excitement as a couple taking their engagement photos set out on the journey of marriage.

Though the world around us was far from perfect that day (it is Atlanta after all)... when we stopped to take in what was around us, stopped to stop worrying about what was next for us and for others, stopped to realize where we were in life... and you know what, at that moment life really was a walk in the park.