Zaragoza Park

We live just around the corner from Zaragoza Park, a lovely urban space with a bandstand in the middle that serves a community centre. Twice a week at 8:00 a.m. we go there for drop-in yoga with Alma. We spend about half an hour doing various balance and stretching and simple yoga poses, followed by maybe 20 minutes of relaxing on our mats under the waving palm trees. The relaxation part is my favourite because I get to dreamily follow the birds as they flit from tree to tree and become mesmerized by the moving clouds and feeling the warmth of the sun as it penetrates the morning cloud cover.

It's not particularly peaceful in the park, however, since there are a couple of other groups that meet there too. One is a few older Mexican woman who laugh and do some simple movements. This group doesn't seem to have a leader. Instead it seems that movements spontaneously begin and are followed.
The other group is younger, about six fit women and a drill sergeant of a leader who runs them ragged for an hour.


















This morning there was also a crew of painters who arrived with buckets of chemical paint and brushes to touch up the fencing and the details on the bandstand. With them there was a boom box playing rhythmic music. Other mornings there are workers sweeping the stones or mowing the grass or clipping the hedges.

Several school girls in spotless uniforms take a short cut through the park on their way to school, as well as a few dads carrying their young ones on the handlebars of the bicycles. And all around the edge of the park there are people, often older men, sitting on benches taking in the view.

Later on in the day there will be kids skateboarding, a few vendors selling chips and salsa, and people walking their dogs.

And some evenings there is dancing in the park. A band plays and chairs are set up in a square around a dancing area. And on Saturdays there's the organic market. It really does serve as a meeting space for many in the neighbourhood.