Within the thick steel and brick buildings that fill Northeast Philadelphia there is a hidden expanse of woodland cleaved by a rugged, narrow creek and a winding blacktop road. The creek is Tookany Creek, the park is Tookany Creek Park, and the road is Tookany Creek Parkway. Entering the park itself brings about a transformation from brick and wood twin houses to the natural world. Suddenly you are surrounded by a carpet of grass and dirt eventually met by the seemingly endless wall of the tree line.
Just before the tree line there is a mulch-padded playground, where my parents would take my brother and I every Fourth of July to celebrate and play. I have countless memories of running around with the rough feeling of mulch packed into my shoes until I could shake it out. I stared across the parkway trying to decipher exactly where my parents took their wedding photos.
I would ask my parents if we could go over the bridge and go exploring, trying to find the area where they took the photographs. The site was a grassy plain where an enormous tree took root in the ground. The root system itself symbolizes the roots of my own personal family tree. In a way, the park itself represents a past that led to the creation of my family.
When my family and I ceased exploring Tookany due to the ever demanding realities of growing up and entering the “real world”, I began to explore it with some of my friends. Instead of the playground we would walk down to the creek and sit upon the rocks that overlooked the slow moving current. We sat there talking about our various teenage issues and fears about the future, while taking in the tranquility of nature.
If we sat still long enough, we heard the chatter of the creek, the murmurs of the wind through the grass and leaves, then a rustling coming from the grass beneath our feet. Looking down we would see the flash of a grayish brown tail flinging itself into the creek. It was a Northern Water Snake that raised its head high out of the water and shimmied further down the creek. I was absolutely amazed and awestruck. If I existed quietly in nature for a period of time, soon enough someone or something would come around and connect back with me. From this experience I developed a theory that when one just exists within nature, while observing nature in all of its glory a person would be able to connect with the animals and nature that live within that space.
Being in nature leads me to a calm and serene place where the hustle of daily life drifts off to the back of my mind allowing the natural space to take over. My attention focused on the natural space allows my brain to observe more closely the movement of grass and flowers and notice an animal. Sitting calm and still shows the animal that I am not a threat to it. The animal then comes closer to observe me before moving on.
I would even like to imagine that sitting below a tree in the park a bit of my energy is released from my body and rushes down into the earth. Once the earth senses this it releases some of its own energy to rush into my body, creating a spiritual circuit. While connected to each other, the earth and I meld into one, our energy combining. Oneness with the earth then allows me to feel what the earth feels and sees and vice versa. The animals sensing this oneness are drawn to me and come closer to explore.
For me, this experience is a way to escape the “real world” and the cityscape that I live in. I belong to a larger community. I become more like the earth and its wild animals. Anyone can experience this and create a closer bond to the earth. It does not matter where you are or who you are, anyone can create a bond with the earth and live in abundant nature.
My theory proved to be true in another situation. My friends and I were stomping along the dirt trail, discussing school, while my eyes connected with the dark black of a deer’s eyes. There was a doe about ten yards away from where we were walking. She was frozen in fear at the sight of us. I quickly spun and informed my friends of the doe and told them to be quiet. In those few seconds, the deer managed to run off into the tree line. I was drawn to connect with the deer again. In an almost trance-like state, I walked closer to the deer, but stopped once I noticed she was getting jittery. I slipped down on my knees and sat crossed legged on the ground watching the deer, who now seemed to invite, even invite my presence.
Tookany Creek Park is a place where not only can I find connections with my own family, but the family the earth has given me. When people personify the earth, they have a point. The earth does create a family that she can give you and you can connect to your own family.
Now as I walk along the pockmarked dirt trails of Tookany Creek, my mind always wanders to a statement I heard years ago about the meaning of the state’s name. Pennsylvania means “Penn’s woods” named for the founder William Penn and the vast forest that inhabited Pennsylvania years before the land was settled and colonized in 1681. I cannot help but imagine how this area was mainly forests filled with trees, fields, creeks, and rivers. It just makes me feel extremely connected to the past. As if I was existing in the same space that the original settlers of Philadelphia existed in three hundred and thirty eight years ago.
It draws me to the rich history of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia itself, that instilled within such a pride and a connection for being a member of a city that is the birthplace of the United States of America and survived countless centuries and is still thriving. Getting my roots into the actual landscape of my city allows me to stay ever connected with my metaphorical roots.
Looking at my own connections in the present makes me very aware and present of both the past and future of Tookany Creek Park. In the past, was there a girl three hundred and thirty eight years ago that also holds these woods in a special place in her heart? Did she also find that mother earth truly gave her connections to her own blood family and then her own environmental family,that composes her whole world? Would she walk through untouched woodlands brimming with signs of animal life? As she was treading her own path through the trees, would she have seen circular deer droppings and see the flicker of a white tail of a deer? For her were the woods an escape from her real life?
In three hundred and thirty seven years, will the park outlast global warming and climate change to fill another girl’s heart and inspire her to find her own personal roots within the nature of Philadelphia? She could be completely unaware that a park once stood here as she walks down the street surrounded by steel and concrete buildings. She could also walk past an abandoned park that has grass and trees growing in and around trash. The smell of decaying animals and rotting trash could cause her to ignore it.
Her story is reliant upon the way people will treat the park, and how people treat the earth. If the park continues to be filled with trash it will eventually begin to just be a landfill. The city may continue to grow and the park can be taken over by buildings. Climate change can eventually kill all of the plants and animals and leave the park barren. If none of these issues change then she will have one of the above futures. If we do something about these issues this girl may be able to have a similar experience as I had.