A Walk Back Through Ropner Park.

I went to Ropner Park today. The ducks were doing their usual networking. The swans were acting like swans. The willow trees looked like they hadn’t been listening to the news, which is probably for the best.

A few years ago, I came here with someone I thought was a friend. I was wrong about that, and the place ended up carrying the weight of that realization. I didn’t exactly avoid the park after that, but I didn’t love the idea of going either. It had nothing to do with the park itself. The park didn’t do anything wrong.

It’s strange how people can stick to places. Sometimes it’s a café or a song or even a name. If it carries a memory that’s uncomfortable, we tend to avoid it. We say we’re over it, but the place still gets exiled.

Lately, I’ve been paying attention to that. If I don’t like a place, I stop and ask why. If the answer is “because of someone I used to know,” then I know there’s work to do. I don’t want old wounds managing my travel plans.

So I decided to go back. I put on my brightest coat and gave the memory a rewrite. Not by erasing it, but by adding something better on top of it. I took my own company, and God’s. I smiled at the ducks. I didn’t think too hard. I just walked.

It felt good. Normal, even. The place wasn’t tainted. It was just waiting to be enjoyed again.

There’s a verse I like in Isaiah 43:18–19:

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

And another from Proverbs 4:25–26:

“Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.”

Some things are worth walking through again. Not to dwell, but to release. To remember that God gives us the option to move forward, even in familiar places.

So if there’s a park, or a path, or a corner of your life that feels sour because of someone else’s shadow, it might be time to walk it again. Bring your bright coat. Make a new memory. Give the place a fair chance.

It might surprise you how light it feels.