I had a few hours until my meeting with Mark, a Games Promotion Officer for Na Fianna, so Georgina, my supervisor, recommended taking a walk to the National Botanic Gardens just down the road. For some reason this suggestion made me think about the old children’s story Ferdinand, about a bull in Spain whose only desire was to sit by his favorite oak tree and smell the flowers. Even when he was chosen to fight in the Bullfights, which was the greatest honor a bull could have, he chose to sit in the middle of the bullring and inhale the smell emanating from the flowers in the all the ladies’ hats. Maybe what brought this story to my mind was the thought of a hefty man like myself being asked to go sit amongst the flowers. Either way, I took a walk to the National Botanic Gardens.
Upon entering, I felt a bit out of place. I took a look at the map and very quickly realized that it meant nothing to me. There were no names of trees or flowers that I recognized or felt any desire to see. I remembered what my mom used to say to me when she would drag me to museums as a kid: Try and find at least one thing that you like before you leave. So that is what I set out to do.
First I entered the cactus house, but walked quickly through it as I suddenly saw a room resembling a rainforest ahead of me. As I walked through the doors into the rainforest I heard running water and saw the top of a thatched roof in the middle. I wandered along the outside of the room until I saw a winding path to the middle. It turned out that the thatched roof was a tiki hut. I had already found one thing that I liked. It was quite humid in the rainforest and it was around 57 degrees and sunny outside so I decided to head out and try and find some flowers to sit by for a while.
My journey continued out the rainforest and through some labelled grass. Then through some labelled weeds, and then what looked to be labelled hay. Finally I reached a beautiful flower patch and decided to sit for a while. I had found a second thing I liked. After around 10 minutes by the flowers I stood up and decided to keep walking.
I continued to wander around, following one path through arches of trees then another path down a series of stone steps. I looped around some kind of tree display and found myself at a bridge. As I walked over the bridge I saw two ducks in the pond. The male floated peacefully, letting himself bob up and over the small ripples in the pond while the female paddled and dove ferociously, probably causing the ripples in the pond. I stood there a while and watched the male duck, thinking of my friend Dylan back home, who is from Oregon and an avid Oregon Ducks fan.
Over the bridge there was a bench in the sun. I chose this spot as my second place to sit because I could continue to watch the ducks and the sun felt amazing on my face. I had found a third thing I liked. I closed my eyes and fell into a blissful state somewhere between rest and awareness. After around 20 minutes I slowly gathered myself and rose from the bench. Feeling refreshed, I stood up and headed back to the clubhouse for my meeting.