If you are looking for an oasis of calm to refresh your frazzled urban mind, then head over to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. This garden is one of the undiscovered jewels of Brooklyn, designed to transport you away from the noise and stress of the city.
It was founded back in 1910, as a way of keeping green space in the fast growing city-- to serve as an escape. The layout of the garden is such that when you walk into it, the city virtually disappears, because of the clever way it is designed. It has a Japanese garden, a Rock garden, a Native Flora, and Rose garden, and so many other offerings. But to me the best one is the Garden for the Blind.
This is a garden made up of plants and flowers that can best be "viewed" with your eyes closed, as the plants here demand that you use your other senses to experience them. For example you have plants and flowers that are very aromatic, plants that that have a variety of textures --so that this one feels like silk, or fur, or like sand, others have strange shapes, that you feel when you trace them with your hands.
It was really joyful to see the blind children and adults, and even the sighted people that were there the day I visited, enjoying the full use of their senses to "see" this garden. But even better, is to visit and experience it yourself--and realize that sometimes we tend to ignore our other senses when we only focus on the visual.
