In 1878, Frederick Law Olmsted first drew up the plans for the Emerald Necklace, 7 miles of stitched-together green space through the heart of Boston. It was an oasis amidst the onslaught of urban noise and heat and rushing traffic. Feeling sappy, he wrote that "a park is a place where the human spirit can soar." You did not — and still do not —have to earn your way into a park. A park does not care about looming work deadlines or credit card debt or existential anxieties. A park is purely there for you to enjoy, so come as you are.

We have gathered a bunch of inspiration from Greater Boston and its public parks for warmer days ahead. Leave your phone at home, take this journal to a park near you, and get lost reading beneath a tree. You will rediscover a world where the birds wake up singing and the trees burst with glorious, hopeful green.