Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Morgan City, Louisiana: Swamp Bells



Brownell Memorial Park, Morgan City, Louisiana


The privately-owned Brownell Memorial Park is packaged in a small box, but inside are multiple micro-adventures.


Brownell Memorial Park, Morgan City, Louisiana


First, there were the devil's horses.
Then there were the spooky bleating swamp lambs.


And then  ....

Brownell Memorial Park, Morgan City, Louisiana


... and then as I walked on the path between the bodies of water, the cypress knees, the strong trees draped with moss, the sounds of the birds and the 'lambs,' I heard:



Claire Brownell founded this park as a testament of her love for the area and a desire to share its beauty with visitors. She had the carillon bells cast in Holland and brought here.

Brownell Memorial Park, Morgan City, Louisiana


Ms. Brownell's gift, which she shared with so many, reminds me of the couple in Rustavi who had fled their homeland in Abkhazia.  In the midst of stark cement towers in New Rustavi, they created a tiny paradise and built a tiny church, both open to any who entered.


Abkhazian-Georgian woman on far right created miniature garden with her husband, Rustavi, Georgia (Caucasus)



It reminds me of something a friend told me years ago - that the flowers that Ladybird Johnson had planted on the Texas highway meridians brought joy to thousands of drivers when they were in bloom, and how can you measure the pleasure we receive by looking upon natural beauty? -  does not an endeavor like hers, like Claire Brownell's, like the Abkhazian couple's - have just as much merit as other good works?   

Ladybird Johnson amid bluebonnets. From 100 Ingredients.

 

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