An accidental, instinctive categorisation system finally examined properly
I have started, somewhat obsessively, tracking which specific London parks are best for which specific mood, a genuinely detailed personal system that I did not realise I had built until a friend asked, entirely reasonably, why I had suggested that particular park for that particular conversation.
The system, explained properly
Some parks are for difficult conversations, spacious enough to walk slowly through without feeling rushed, quiet enough that a wobbling voice would not carry to strangers nearby. Others are for celebration, open enough for genuine, unselfconscious enthusiasm without feeling like you are performing for an audience.
I could not tell you exactly when this categorisation system solidified into its current form. I only know that I now instinctively reach for a specific park depending on what a given conversation or mood actually requires, the same way you might reach for a specific tool for a specific job.
The park for difficult news
There is one specific park I have, more than once, ended up in shortly after receiving genuinely difficult news, and I am not sure whether I chose it deliberately or simply found myself there through some kind of learned instinct, but it has become, almost against my will, the place my body seems to know to go.
I do not fully understand the mechanism. I only know that particular stretch of grass and trees has absorbed more of my difficult moments than any other single location in the city, and I have a strange, quiet gratitude toward it as a result.
The park for good news
There is a different park entirely for genuinely good news, one with considerably more open sky, more room to walk with an actual spring in your step without self consciousness, and I have started, deliberately, saving certain celebratory phone calls specifically for when I know I will be passing through it.
This deliberate scheduling probably sounds excessive to anyone who has not developed their own version of it. But I think most people who spend enough time in one city do eventually build some version of this system, whether or not they have ever consciously named it.
Why I finally wrote this down
My friend’s question made me realise how much of this system had been operating entirely below conscious awareness, and writing it down properly has been oddly clarifying, a way of finally naming something I had been doing instinctively for years without ever examining it directly.
More park categorisation at Fiona MacLeod, Bohiney.
The park that surprised me
There is one park that, against my own expectations, turned out to be excellent for neither difficult nor celebratory news specifically, but for the genuinely rare, valuable category of simply thinking clearly, and discovering this specific use took me considerably longer to identify than the more obvious categories.
I still visit this particular park whenever I need to work through something complicated, and it has, more reliably than almost anywhere else, delivered exactly the kind of clarity I go there hoping to find.
What my friend said when I explained the system
Once I actually laid out the full system for her, my friend admitted she had her own version, entirely different parks assigned to entirely different purposes, and comparing our two independently developed systems became its own small, genuinely fascinating conversation about how differently two people can map the same city.
A closing thought
The system keeps quietly expanding, one new park and one new mood at a time, entirely without my conscious permission.
The mood I still have not found a park for
There remains one specific emotional register, a kind of restless, unfocused energy that does not seem to fit neatly into any of my existing categories, and I am still, genuinely, searching for the right park to assign it to.
I suspect I will know it when I find it, the same way the other assignments seemed to arrive without much conscious deliberation on my part.
If you have your own version of this system, entirely different from mine, I would love to compare notes.
One more small thing
I have started explaining the system to more people lately, and nearly everyone, once they think about it, admits to having some version of their own.
More soon, presumably, from wherever the next postcode leads.
What I would tell someone building their own system
Trust the instinct even before you can fully explain it. The explanation, if it matters, tends to arrive eventually on its own.
Thanks, as ever, for reading this far.
The very last word
The system will keep expanding whether I consciously build it or not, and I have decided that is exactly how it should work.
More soon.
Truly, one last thought
Whatever park eventually claims that missing mood, I trust I will recognise it the moment I arrive.
End.
Thanks, genuinely, for reading this far into another one of these.
Until the next one.
End of this entry, genuinely, for now.
See you next time.
Thank you.
All the best.
Speak soon.
Take care out there.
Bye for now.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
