Step off the Asphalt

We’ve lived in the same home for many years. Our neighbourhood is a relatively quiet one and very conducive to evening walks. Although we don’t walk as often as we should, we have always enjoyed our evening strolls – some for exercise, some for leisure – all peaceful and invigorating. When you live in one place long enough, you get to know the people in the area- even if just by face- and you can easily spot new home improvements or renovations in the houses on the street. 

Everything is familiar. 

Imagine our surprise, then, when we found out that just up the main road – not far from our house – there is a quiet little park with a few benches lining the water’s edge. 

I remember vividly the first time we heard someone in the area talk about that seaside park. My husband and I looked at each other, completely perplexed. We have walked the length and breadth of that main road countless times over many years. How was it possible that we hadn’t known about this park? 

One day, while taking an evening stroll, we decided to see if we could find the entrance to the park. We walked along the main road and, instead of following the road’s natural curve to the left, we headed to the right. What lay ahead of us appeared to be a dead end. We walked along the short stretch of road and then stepped off the asphalt, over a low barrier fashioned from a length of chain, and onto the grass. From this vantage point, we could see a small gate along what we had assumed was the boundary wall for a block of apartments. And there, just beyond the little gate, was the secret park. 

As we walked towards the sea wall, I could smell the salt in the air from the water. The closer we got to it, the better I could hear the waves gently crashing onto the rocks on the other side of the short wall. 

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. How had we missed this? 

We sat on a bench and soaked in the scenery. I felt a sense of peace settle over my entire body. I have always been drawn to the water. I find the sights, sounds and smells of the ocean to be nothing short of intoxicating. As I watched the sun setting in the distance, I thought about a word that could capture this special place and the feelings that it evoked in me. The word came to me easily: Sanctuary. 

I thought about the main road leading toward the sea and just how many times we had walked along it, completely oblivious to the piece of paradise just beyond the apparent dead end. We had been down that road so many times that we were convinced we knew it completely. 

I couldn’t help but think that every single person who had ever frequented this quiet park would have had to walk along the main road to get here. That very same main road that we have traversed for years. 

I marveled at how people could walk the same road but not reach the same place. 

We had stayed on the main road throughout the years because we walked along the paved parts. That was the natural course to be followed. The path to be taken. The road well-travelled. And, don’t get me wrong… it is an enjoyable path. It is familiar. It is comfortable. And it leads to certainty. 

But, seeing the beauty that lay just beyond the paved edge of a seemingly dead end reminded me that sometimes peace lies beyond the beaten path.
That a well paved road isn’t the only way forward. 
That something fulfilling could lie just beyond the familiar. 

I thought of the very many beaten paths in our lives and how, from that vantage point, everything else can seem like a dead end. 

What might happen, I wondered, if we decided to step off of that beaten road, over the chains that keep us on the asphalt and walked where there was no path? 

What might happen if we looked past the familiar and instead searched for the fulfilling? 

What might happen if we followed our senses to the things that we find intoxicating? 

We might discover beauty.
We might encounter peace.
We might find sanctuary. 

But we’ll never know for sure unless we step off the asphalt.