There aren’t too many good photos of the Suwanee Creek Greenway (or so says Google Image Search), so I can only paint you a picture with my words. Oh goody.

The approach to the Greenway, at least from our apartment, isn’t too spectacular: just a hike along a wide strip of asphalt up and down the hills leading up to Buford Highway. Kind of unpleasant, really, especially when there’s an abundance of trucks that take that road and putt-putt-vrooom out toxic gases. If you’re not looking at the six-lane road, you can always peek over the overpass, where the railroad tracks churn out toward Old Town in a refreshing stretch. They could have been there forever for all I know, the way it’s made peace with the woods and Suwanee Creek.

Even when you get to the Greenway entrance, you probably wouldn’t find it remarkable. It’s kind of got a sterile, over-traveled, Parks-and-Rec feel when a lot of people use it. But somehow, in the two times I’ve gone, I’ve often had it all to myself.

When I have it all to myself, it’s so peaceful. The light filters in through the just-dense-enough trees, the path winds a little, there are occasional wooden footbridges crossing over marshy creek land.

Maybe you don’t know me, but I never run. Not ever. Somehow, though, the blend of my singular presence in such a tranquil place, where the breeze blew just enough to be refreshing, with my iPod playing my favorite film instrumentals… I don’t know, I just took off. And this is going to sound plenty lame, but I felt as though my soul were running. That I could just dart about like a deer.

[Side note: There actually were deer on my Greenway trip earlier today. One had crossed over the path just a few yards ahead of me to join her mate in the thicker woods to my left. Maybe some of you get sick of deer, but a city slicker like me was starry-eyed, let me tell you.]

Anyway, as I steadied into a walk-then-run-then-walk-then-run-again routine, I kept taking it all in and thought to myself, You know, I should totally blog about this when I get back.

So that’s what I’m doing. I just had to share the tranquility, serenity, and green-ity that I experienced, and also to share with the world that, believe it or not, I actually ran today.

I just hope there are nature paths in Heaven.