Feng Shui Perfection

Sometimes I’m a stranger in my own town. I’ve lived in Minneapolis all but three years of my adult life, yet I was just recently introduced to a part of the city I had never been, which, as it turns out, it is probably the most perfect Feng Shui spot around.

I had heard of Centennial Lakes Park, a man-made area integrating condos, townhomes, offices and retail space. But I never seemed to have the time to explore it, or it wasn’t convenient, or something. A couple nights ago my neighbor invited me to go with her as she walked her dog.

Understand that my husband and I live near Lake Harriet in south Minneapolis where people can bike, walk, or jog around the lake. Most people have their I-pods plugged into their ears and are oblivious to anything else. When I do walk around the lake, I feel like I need to keep up or get out of the way of the power walkers. We also live on Minnehaha Parkway which provides more walking and bike paths meandering with the flow of Minnehaha Creek. At times these paths get downright remote and isolated, rustic even. So I’m familiar with walking by
water and have done my share.

Centennial Lakes, however, takes these concepts and creates what I see as the perfect Feng Shui experience. The paths are indeed centered around water, like the above examples, but that’s about where any similarities end. The walk is about a mile-and-a-half around the whole lake. For most of the way, their paths lead you around the lake in an obvious course, but then intermittently will diverge into two separate options, eventually merging back into a single walkway, providing a new view so you'd never tire of the scenery. There are tons of places to sit and in a variety of ways----park benches, benches where you can rest your back up against a tree, benches tucked behind some hedges, benches out on a peninsula overlooking the water, benches perched high up on some rocks to give a higher focus, double swings where couples could sit and talk, or where this particular evening three young girls could laugh hysterically at a recent text message, lawn chairs, rocks strategically placed by the water, picnic tables. If you needed to rest, you were not out of luck.

If you wanted to be more active, you could rent a paddle boat or a gondalier could provide you a Venice-like ride around the park. A labyrinth lured some people into its mystery. There was a putting course, a croquet lawn, bridges spanned across the water. People with dogs, people without dogs, people in wheel-chairs, people with kids and dogs, classical music coming from somewhere, lights emphasizing certain areas.

Maybe it had an artificial feel; it was, after all, a fabricated setting. Some would argue that this isn't truly nature but a polished substitute. But people were engaged. No power walkers here. I didn’t see one I-pod. Everyone said hello, everyone was smiling. People were ambling and strolling. I didn’t want it to end. The next night I took my husband back and the experience was just as great. We came home refreshed, renewed, uplifted----isn’t that what a true Feng Shui spot should do?