‘Emerald Necklace’

Scorching heat mixed with strong sunlight and high humidity affects our daily lives. My nephew living in Daegu says that he feels almost like he's in a hot frying pan. The heat wave is spread all over the world.

In such hot summer weather, walking under the trees in a forest is one way to be refreshed. Because of this refreshing benefit of trees, preserving nature and creating green spaces has been one of the challenging tasks to make the globe a better place to live.

I imagine that the vast fields and lands once created endless networks of jungles filled with trees, plants, flowers, streams, lakes, ponds and rocks.

However, under the constant influence of civilization, many green spaces have been developed and cultivated for other purposes. Despite much development here and there, it is good to see that green spaces are maintained thanks to mindful people with goodwill.

People with spiritual vision, especially ecologists and environmentalists, have constantly made efforts to protect nature from further damage. Thanks to their goodwill and inspiring vision, we can still appreciate and enjoy the beauty of the marvelous nature around us.

One day, when I took a walk in Brookline near Boston, I came across Fairsted, a Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site!

Out of curiosity, I read a profile of Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) introduced in a leaflet and found out that he was a great environmentalist with a promising vision and inspiring goodwill.

Olmsted was the first landscape architect in America, whose celebrated designs include Central Park in New York City, Biltmore Estate in Ashville, N.C., the World’s Fair in Chicago, the Capitol Grounds, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Riverside in Illinois and Stanford University in California.

As the nation’s premier park maker and designer, he moved to a farmhouse in Brookline, Mass., in 1883, and created the five-mile trails called the Emerald Necklace covering the linked paths from Franklin Park, Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Pond, Olmsted Park and Muddy River to Back Bay Fens.

The Emerald Necklace is a grand parkway connecting the heart of the city with the pastoral and picturesque rural scenery of the suburbs. Olmsted had a vision for creating the necklace in nature to give people a “lovely dale gently winding between low wooded slopes, giving a broad expanse of unbroken turf, lost in the distance.” He dreamed that everybody could escape from the industrialized urban society through the space.

He believed that “no great town can long exist without great suburbs.” He thought that our body and spirit could be healed through a close relationship with nature. Truly, we need some quiet places to be free from the stress, tension and pressure due to the hectic lifestyle.

As he firmly believed, beautiful scenery has more than restorative powers. Pastoral nature has a moral and spiritual influence on human behavior and it promotes a healthy community life that is harmonized with leisure, contemplativeness, resilience and happy tranquility.

Since my Spiritual Exercises in June this year, I jog for about an hour early every morning, facing toward the east to feel the sunrise. I think the sunrise is one of the best gifts from nature. Jogging, slowly breathing in and out, and facing the heavens give me refreshing perspectives on life.

I really appreciate all those who make the globe green, peaceful and beautiful.

The author is a member of the Daughters of St. Paul (Figlie di San Paolo), living the Good News and proclaiming it with various means of social communication.