Nature Does Wonders for Pregnancy Relaxation

Today was probably the most beautiful day of the year. Weather wise. It was the kind that should be bottled up and sewn over the whole year to achieve autumn bliss year-round.  I boarded a bus and shuttled to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens to sit on a bench and sort of meditate in the sun.  Except I spent most of the time in the herb garden looking at the plants and drawing inspiration from the various names of them for a possible clue to what I might call a baby boy.  There are a lot of girl herb names.  Sage is a name I love, but it doesn't bode well with Jones, the baby's last name. Sage Jones. It's hard to say. You have to get the "g" out before you get the "J" out. Plus, I don't want to do a one-syllable first name with a one-syllable last name.  I learned a lot about plants and trees today. The Gingko tree, which grows in the U.S.  is an ancient tree, over 200 million years old. Even its leaves are ancient looking.  Palms can grow in New York City.  I left the gardens with no names but with a nice dose of the outdoors before heading back to my crowded street.  I will need to get daily nature dosage in between now and birth time to maintain a sense of peace.  Even in Brooklyn nature can be had. It's good for the spirit and the womb.  There are trees on my street with yellow leaves. The parks in the projects are filled with autumn leaves of all colors.  The view from my kitchen windows reveals the yards below with still-growing impatiens, leaf-filled oaks, and the lushness of leftover summer flora grown strong from October rain. My neighbor has a perennial garden for a yard. I will go over and sit. Today I realized how huge I am and not really fit for society's eyes.  I have a Halloween outing in Central Park to take my daughter to on Saturday. It will be what I will consider a voyage to the ends of the earth with subway stairs to climb and a 25-minute walk inside the park. But nature will envelope me and I will feel so happy. Let my baby absorb some of that natural joy.  I will try to go to the zoo one more time as a pregnant person, just to walk around the natural setting of Prospect Park.  Lost inside either Central or Prospect Parks, you would think you may be in a wooded forest of Wisconsin, not in the largest metropolitan center in the U.S. I am so grateful for these nature escapes in the city.  Of course, my feline companion is next to me purring loudly. She is another source of calm that I like to get my belly close to so the baby can appreciate the melodic purring sounds too. Of course I wish I were spending the next 6 weeks in a cottage by a stream, such as where the 7 dwarves live.  That is my idea of rest and relaxation.  But I live with 2.5 million people.  So the nature of NYC is where my inspiration for a relaxing last leg of this third trimester will come.