The Shadows and Shades of the Boston Public Garden

Boston Public Garden was bright and sunny the day we visited.

The kind of sunny day that makes you reach for your sunglasses… and then wish you had brought a hat as well. 😎

But what caught my attention were the shadows.

They were everywhere.

The huge willow trees were casting long shadows across the grass and water, while people moved between sunshine and shade.

And then I noticed my own shadow.

Apparently, I had brought a companion with me.

It had no luggage, needed no food, and never once asked where we were going.

Sometimes it followed me.
Sometimes it walked ahead. 😄

Either way, it seemed to know the way better than I did.

The funny thing about shadows is that they can make us look rather different.

A perfectly ordinary person can suddenly become remarkably tall.

At least my shadow seemed to think I was.

For once, I wasn’t going to argue with it. 😄

As we walked around, there were people enjoying the day, dogs being walked, and squirrels going about their business.

There was even a sign politely asking visitors not to feed the wildlife.

The squirrels, judging by their confidence, seemed perfectly capable of looking after themselves.

They probably didn’t need my help either. 😄

There were also monuments, fountains, gardens and native plants. Some obvious, others quietly waiting to be noticed.

And that made me realise the Garden wasn’t just about what was in the sunshine.

It was also about what was in the shade.

The grand and the ordinary.

The old and the new.

The things we notice immediately… and the things that make us stop and look twice.

And, of course, there were our shadows.

By then, they had become rather persistent.

They walked with us.

Stretched when we stretched.

And seemed to grow longer as the afternoon went on.

Perhaps that’s what made me think about the other kind of shadows we all carry.

The difficult days.

The uncertainties.

The things we’d sometimes rather leave behind.

We often think of shadows as something negative. Something that follows us and gets in the way of the light.

But perhaps we can look at them differently.

We all have our moments in the sunshine.

We all have our patches of shade.

And we all carry a few shadows along with us.

Sometimes, they are simply proof that we are standing in the light.

Maybe we don’t need to be afraid of every shadow.

Some are simply there because the light is.

And perhaps, while we have the light, we should keep walking.