SLC31-W4 | THE GREEN JOURNEY | Earthing and the Elements.

So yesterday I decided to visit a park with so much natural background and it happens to be the oldest park in my city. It's a play that's as large as a village. If you want to see the end of this place, you'll definitely work for hours except you're driving and it's built on a green grass that's maintained occasionally.

It's called the Unity Park. You'll be surprised with all that u have to say in the course of this Earthing and Elements Journey because I definitely enjoyed every bit of it. Let me tell you about this place first before talking about the natural elements seen here.

Unity park is the oldest green park in Uyo and a place where carnivals are done because of the spaciousness of the place. It was once a playground for children, but now, it's just a park and that park-like nature has revealed itself because people can come here and recreate, have fun, organise parties and wedding, park date and the likes and it's very accessible to anyone.

It's located opposite Banking Layout, where most of the Banks are situated in Uyo, like the UBA, Central Bank l, Access and others. It's located along Udoudoma road and you can get to this place through udoudoma traffic or IBB roundabout. These are their locations on Google and steem-atlas. This is also a picture of the place on its exterior.

This place is a real and safe place. It's just like Paradise in Uyo. I decided to visit the place because it has a lot of greenery and I felt so I could connect with nature in this place by combining all the elements together which I'll specify first before telling you the simple actions I did.

These are the elements I captured. I got every picture and video of them. These elements ranged from the soil to natural surroundings. I'll talk about them categorically. All these elements makes up

Soil or ground
Water
Air/wind 🌬️
Sunlight
Natural surroundings

• Soil: The soil in this area is made of fine sharp sand as if it's a beach soil. I could feel the fine particles of the sandy soil that evening. It's not like the trough sands we have in other places. It made me remove my shoes to feel the smoothness of the soil, but nothing beats the wind which I'll explain. I wrote my name on the sand and it showed boldly and visibly is. If not for one thing, I would have laid bay on the soil while feeling the atmosphere. The soil here is just different. This is the fine part of the earth and if notice, you'll see a lot of footprints and tyres on it. It can capture even the slightest details. That's nature for you. Check out the action I did with the sandy soil in the course of my writing.

• Water: I doubted the possibility of seeing a body of water because every evening was grassy and green and it wasn't too sloppy that even gave the idea that water was somewhere. I had to walk down in search of this and I found that water always has it way. No matter how hard you try to channel water, it always has it way. The park created a special pond for water and there's usually a boat by the body of water where people come to do a little boating activity in the water. The water body is broad. I was just so scared of going close because I didn't know how deep it was. I couldn't touch it because I'm not a fan of water. So imagine soil and water in this park — two distinct elements.

• Air and Wind: How possible could I capture this element I can't see with my eyes? It was impossible, but I captured its movements in trees. The wind at that period of time made the whole park refreshing even when the sun was giving its scorching light. I felt seriously connected to the movement anytime it tosses the trees back and forth. Though it can't be seen with the naked eyes, it can be felt as if it's seen. This same mild and gentle wind can be violent at some point and can pull down a building. The strength of this element is very destructive that's why we need to always make it calm instead of triggering it with toxic substances. 😁

• Sunlight: The sun shown brilliantly in this place since it's an open space. It's only the trees that can shade you because nature has it way of making the sun expand to the ends of the sun. So even when I went farther from the sun, its rays kept following me. Who dare you to look at the sun when its shining its brilliance? You won't stand the rays except you use a sun shade. Have you seen how the sunlight element is powerful? Even when we know the sun is thousands of kilometres away from the earth, its rays is as if it's close to our head. I took the sun behind a tree because I couldn't stand the rays and my camera couldn't snap it either because of the lens.

• Natural surroundings: This natural surroundings include trees, grasses, flowers, roots and anything green that adds beauty to this place. Different trees that are older than I am are seen in this park to show you that this element is great. Looking at the grass, did it just come to be or someone planted it? That's nature for you because this place naturally needs had this grass. If it were planted or grown, it would have taken years to build the park. In some areas, it was planted, but we came to see this park naturally with green beautiful grasses which are considered as weeds, but can beautify the environment if trimmed well.

These were all the elements I could capture and I enjoyed all of them after pondering on how they work and how they come about. Everything made me marvel creation to the deepest part and I came to discovered that we can't do without any of these elements. They mean life to us. We would be dead without soil to grow food, water to drink, air to breathe, sunlight to grow food and regulate temperature, natural surroundings for everything.

These are some actions I took to connect with nature and to be honest, nature taught me a lot that I could even learn from it.

Walk barefoot on grass or soil
Connection with the soil	Walking barefoot on a soil and on a grass brings about two different energies and feelings. On the soil, my feet could feel the fine particles of the soil and it made me see how simple life can be and how complex shoes can be. Removing my shoes triggered a connection with my brain. I could feel the energy of the soil run through my veins. No wonder we don't usually wear shoes when playing as children.
Connection with the grass	While the soil uplifted my spirit and made me see simplicity on a different dimension, the grass made me feel warmth from harsh and hard conditions. It made me see that life always have a soft way for those who can't survive hardships. Walking on the grass made me feel relaxed and pampered.

Feel the wind or sunlight

Connection with sunlight and wind

I love how this combo came together because I sat under the tree, feeling the soft rays of the sun while breeze was blowing at the same time. I can't explain this feeling, but it was great. The cold air after being filtered by the heat if the sun rays. I came to appreciate sunlight more because plants are young and agile when the sun shines. When the sun is down, it's weak and is in a resting stage. I also did a shadow of myself which made me see the great impact of light in photography.

Sit quietly in a natural environment
Connection with natural environment	It made me see life as one with hope, problem free and also made me meditate on times I'll live to appreciate my hard work. It's also good for meditation and mind exercise. I did yoga with this solitude.

Touch plants, leaves, or natural objects
Connection with leaves and trees	The root of a tree was the best place I sat to enjoy nature, the breeze and sunlight. I touched the steem of the trees and the roots to feel its broadness. It was indeed unique. My hand was small compared to it. I also touched the leaves when the wind was tossing it back and forth.

I observed all natural elements and I made sure I felt them with my hands, ones i could feel

• Stumps of big trees
• Clouds
• Small hills

Visiting this place just for the purpose of feeling the natural elements was enough justification that I felt something extraordinary with nature. I experienced first hand the combination of cold breeze that comes from when the sun shines and wind blows. This experience made me feel relaxed under the great root of a tree. I felt every energy as if they were new.

I also played with the sand and did yoga exercise under a big tree. I then sat down on the stump of a big tree and watched two young boys playing football. After that, I did simple green actions that concerns cleaning the environment as discussed in week 2. I packed sachets water from a field to make it more green and free from debris or waste..

So I combined week 2 and week 3 together. The element I enjoyed most was the wind. It was just so differently felt on a sunny day. I've never felt so much energy before during peak hours like that. If affected my mind in the sense that, my thoughts were filtered so to speak as the wind filters toxic air. **I was energised with the new energy springing from the way the breeze blew.