Walking in Burns Park

     This year for Thanksgiving break I was lucky enough to go home and catch one more glimpse of a beautiful Arkansas fall. As I talked about in my Mary Oliver presentation, fall in Arkansas is special to me because of its beauty, but also because of the memories it holds over the course of my childhood. Getting to see the leaves continue to change was incredibly special and there was an added layer to this trip- getting to walk through Burns Park. My family and I love to take my dog, Vail, out to a beautiful trail near where my dad works, complete with open fields where she can run off leash and chase deer, while my family and I rode avid bikers on the trails. My favorite part of the trail is that it connects to Burns Park, which houses the soccer fields that I grew up practicing and playing tournaments on. Because of flooding during the spring following a horrific tornado, the fields have been closed all summer and fall. However, on Thanksgiving morning, with no one else in sight, my family and I snuck through the gate with Vail to walk amongst the fields and beautiful trees that hold so many special memories from my childhood. As we passed field after field, we recounted memories from each patch of grass, and smiled as Vail wove in and out of the trees as we walked. Fall in this park was a safe place for me as a child, and as an adult, it was both bittersweet and joyful. I felt like this time walking through, I was less focused on the fields and more focused on the nature surrounding it, from the trees, to the deer, to the wind blowing the leaves across the grass. This class has truly given me such an appreciation for nature and taking a second to take it all in, especially on a day like Thanksgiving, made me grateful for the earth. It made me grateful that even when life changes, nature doesn't have to.