Thoughts from Dr. Joe: Enchantment in a familiar space

By Joe Puglia

Jan. 5, 2017 11:18 AM PT

After a week of Christmas merriment and indulging in too much fudge, my walk through “Enchanted: Forest of Light” at Descanso Gardens was a respite from the excesses of the season.

Not bothered by the throngs of fellow seekers attempting to experience the enchantment, I walked along the tulip pathway and into the interior of the gardens. With a rainbow of lights, the lower promenade was luminescent. Descanso called this path “flower power.” As I moved along the flowers, they’d change color as if to entice me toward the five large and yet mysterious sycamore trees with branches outstretched like mimes frozen in a pose. The lights in the sycamores were interactive and influenced the whim of the passersby. However, they didn’t have to be, as their stately carriage would be kingly in any context especially with the backlight of the moon.

I walked as though I was in a translucent bubble where my senses could only experience the extrinsic; the intrinsic world was muted, leaving me in my own private space. Descanso Gardens evokes a feeling of contemplative solitude.

I circled the lake and the recalled days I spent pushing my two then-toddlers, Sabine and Simone, in a tandem stroller around the expanse. We’d search for fish and they’d marvel at the ducks, and we’d indulge in the sounds and motion of the fast running waters that feed the lake. I told the girls about the legend of Nimue — the Lady of the Lake — and her musings with King Arthur, Lancelot, Merlin the Magician and the fabled sword Excalibur.

As I walked around the lake on one of the last evenings the “Enchanted” display was showcased, the lights of Descanso bounced from the water and into the imaginations of those who peered into the lake’s depth. I envisioned Nimue surfacing once again and spreading her magic to those who believe.

I turned away and descended into my favorite part of Descanso, the oaks. There, sensors planted among the trees emitted sounds and lights that depicted the very nature of enchantment. It is fascinating to me that native Tongva settlements in Tujunga, Cahuenga, Cucamonga, Azusa, Pacoima, Hahamongna and Topanga encircled present day La Cañada. The Tongva would have settled in Descanso. Because of the abundance of acorns, water, firewood and a sheltering valley, I knew that Descanso was once their home. That’s one of the enchantments of the oaks — just knowing earlier people lived among them.

We are drawn to lights, and there is indeed something special about lights at Christmas. During the reign of Queen Victoria, Christmas as we know it was popularized throughout Europe and North America. In her journal for Christmas Eve, 1832, the 13-year-old princess wrote, “After dinner ... we then went into the drawing-room near the dining-room. There were two large round tables on which were placed two trees hung with lights and sugar ornaments. All the presents being placed round the trees.”

It is believed that the first outdoor public electric light holiday display was organized by Fredrick Nash and the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce in neighboring Altadena, on Santa Rosa Avenue, and called Christmas Tree Lane. Christmas Tree Lane has been continuously lit during the season since 1920, except during WWII.

From Descanso’s oaks, I walked through the exploding lights of the fantasy forest and into the Japanese myth, “Hotarubi no Mori e,” (“The Forest of Fireflies”). In the story, the supernatural is venerated — and wasn’t that the theme of Descanso’s “Enchanted: Forest of Light”?

I left the oak forest and strolled into the great lawn. The luminous lawn was fascinating, but in it I could still envision the days some years back when my Girl Scouts from Troop 889 played steal the bacon and ran with abandon.

I arrived at the ancient forest. There, I sat on a bench and had sweet thoughts of my mom. I remember she’d take my brother and me by the hand, and we’d traipse through the neighborhoods of the Bronx looking at the Christmas lights and finding the enchantment in the forest of the city.

JOE PUGLIA is a practicing counselor, a retired professor of education and a former officer in the Marines. Reach him at doctorjoe@ymail.com. Visit his website at doctorjoe.us.