Central Park, Ashland Kentucky

Central Park

One of the great joys of traveling to new places are the surprises that often appear before unsuspecting eyes. Such was the case when I found myself today in an old steel and coal town along the Ohio River. My first impressions of the city of Ashland, Kentucky were less than stellar – vast mountains of coal being loaded onto barges at the river front, noisy labyrinthine railroad switching yards, stinking refinery plants shrouded in clouds of toxic air pollutants. Yet, underneath the accretions of a declining smokestack industrial empire, one finds an emerald jewel. It is much like finding a pearl of great price in a battered oyster shell.

A mere six blocks from the rusting industrial architecture on the riverfront is a large city park of perhaps a hundred and fifty acres surrounded by dozens of spectacular restored houses from a by-gone century when the prosperity of coal and steel allowed tycoons to build their lavish dreams. The City of Ashland clearly is home to a number of visionary citizens who sought to save their architecture and build a jewel of a city park. Having been in many of the world’s great cities and having enjoyed their grand parks, it is very easy to see them as among the greatest assets in public life.

One of the greatest and most rewarding journeys one can make in life is the one which leads us to wholeness of mind and body. It is often an arduous journey but the mercies of God do allow us blessed seasons of rest, even if but for the brief span of a couple of hours. On distant journeys, I have often found my rest in churches at midday. At noon I was sitting in a fine old brick Episcopal church when a woman came up behind me, unseen, and kissed me on top of my head. I was quite astonished until the woman apologized profusely and explained that she mistook my balding pate for another one of similar appearance. I readily accepted her apology and told her she could kiss my bald head anytime. Alas, we parted ways with my wondering about this person that dispenses lavish kisses to strange heads.

The 23rd Psalm is often considered the most powerful imagery ever created with words. Most compelling in this endearing promise of hope is the assurance that God will lead us into green pastures for rest and beside still waters for refreshment of our thirsty souls. I was walking with a good friend in the nearby park after leaving the church and he pointed out someone nearby. Sitting at a picnic table by the bucolic lake and fountains that mark the center of Ashland’s crown jewel, was the very woman who had endowed me with her mistaken affections. Perhaps the world really is small, warm and friendly after all. We approached her table and were quickly invited to sit with her. She even offered paper towels to dry the benches, still wet from a morning rain.

I was to soon learn that her wisdom is of far greater value than her kisses. She too is on a long journey to wholeness of mind and body. Sitting at the picnic table by the lake, I felt as if I was in one of the great lecture halls of Oxford or Cambridge. I was offered sage counsel on facing the myriad challenges of life that I quickly discerned had been learned from experience, not from textbooks. I even felt compelled to get pen and paper and make notes, not wanting to risk her pearls of wisdoms to retention in my uncertain wisps of memory. I did, indeed, find great refreshment for a thirsty soul by the still waters of Central Park and rest in a very real field of emerald green grass beneath ancients trees planted by visionaries long gone onto their greater rewards.

I suspect my daily meditations on Psalm 23 will be forever more visual and experiential after my experience today. Central Park in Ashland is a powerful metaphor that brought this Psalm to life today for a weary traveler. I found refreshment and rest from one of God’s messengers and did so in a time of dryness and weariness. Certainly, my experience in Ashland’s Central Park was the equal or better than any of those I had in London’s Hyde Park or Paris’ Luxembourg Gardens. It even bested my luminous times in the Stadt Park of Vienna.

I am reminded of the promises of Isaiah. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

God sent me my own messenger today to tell me it will get better if I wait on him.