Thunder Hill Park Alliance

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not take both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could see

To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference. 

Our community is at the “two roads in a yellow wood” and collectively we are deciding which to take - a park with a children’s garden, and sports amenities or a garden park that includes a children’s garden.   The farm land of which we speak escaped commercial and residential development and legal challenges and awaits a new purpose.  This is an important moment in our community.  What we decide - once done - leaves it doubtful to “come back.”

Great cities have great public spaces.  This summer I was enthralled by the beauty of downtown Madrid.  Acres of garden park providing respite from the city energy, protection from the heat and most importantly beauty to feed the soul.  In my travels I find beauty and respite in parks.  New York gives us Central Park, London, Hyde Park, Victoria, BC - Butchart Gardens, Chadds Ford - Longwood Gardens and closer to home and more akin to our size the Brookside Gardens in Silver Spring. 

Howard County is blessed with wonderful parks and recreational areas - Centennial Lake, Savage Mill trails, Wilde Lake, Elkhorn, Rockburn. Patuxent Wildlife Refuge to name but few but we do not have a place dedicated to beauty and tranquility, which would enhance our already unique community. 

We live in a region with extraordinarily high energy - county residents zipping up and down 95 and 29 to work. Planes humming overhead.  World class universities attracting the best and brightest and producing cutting edge research.  Government governing and attracting visitors from around the world.  Our region literally buzzes with energy and it cries out for places of respite, places of beauty and tranquility.  Places to remind us that we are a part of nature.

Each of us has had the experience of visiting extraordinary places and marveling at the vision of  those that created it - in fact we have to look no further than Columbia.  We marvel at the boldness of the original idea, we marvel at those that dared “to take the road less traveled.”  Dare we take that road?  Dare we create something unique, peaceful, tranquil and supremely beautiful?