Hike 31 - Cedar Lake
We woke up Saturday not really knowing how the day would end. It was another day of unrest, of protests, and unfortunately a lot of looting and burning of businesses. George Floyd had been killed by police on Monday and the city was upet… for George, for Brianna, Ahmaud, Eric, Michael, Philando and ALL the others. I’ve been talking with my family and having very intentional conversations with my 10 year old white daughter about what’s going on now. What HAS been going on. And honestly, I’m having a lot of conversations with myself. What can I do? What impact can I make? I don’t want to be another white person who just posts a picture and a hashtag on social media.
I haven’t been protesting, but that doesn’t mean I don’t support the protestors. I have been reflecting and figuring out how to best use my white voice to support black humans, to support justice, and to be an ally. It’s still a work in progress as I’m educating myself and processing what has been happening in the world. As my daughter noted “the world is really stressful right now”. So with my white privalage, I asked my family to go on a walk with me Saturday morning. Walking and getting out in nature is how I try to de-stress and I’m grateful that I am able to do so. To be honest, part of me wanted to just go out alone and be with my thoughts, but I also find comfort in my family and I was glad to have them with me.
I debated all morning about just walking out the door and wandering around the neighborhood or selecting a new trail to explore. I finally came to a decision and selected a trail nearby. Cedar Lake is really close to our house, but I was under the impression that the trail only goes around part of the lake - and that is sort of true. It’s not like some of our other city lakes with a clear paved trail along the shore, but it does have a trail that I was able to map out, and then modify once out walking to make it a new favorite for us.
We started out in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood following the paved trail and then met up with the Cedar Lake trail. I discovered there were some detours, but the best discovery was that there were dirt trails within a woodsy area. Paved trails are fine. I like them when I know it’s been raining a lot and the earth is wet, but they aren’t what I prefer. I’d rather walk on dirt and grass and feel the connection to the earth as much as I can. There was a number of trails weaving through the woods and I’m excited to go back to explore this area more. Even my husband raved over it and determined that this might be a good change from the Westwood Hills Nature Center near our house that he walks through quite a bit.
There were a lot of messages along the way that were worth reading and worth getting behind. As I write this, it’s a few days later. There has been a lot of looting and destruction of businesses, a huge scare with a semi on a closed highway, violence against people and media…, but there has been a lot of peaceful protests. Each day people get out to speak their voice, clean up the community, and be visable. It’s not just hear in Minnesota, or even in the United States - we are seeing protests around the world, people making their feelings known that this injustice needs to stop.
