The other day when we were running, Zack and I saw a staircase we’d never noticed before.  What’s down there? I asked Zack while we ran by.  He disappeared down the stairs.  I kept running.  Less than a half-mile later, he reappeared behind me.  I asked again.  What’s down there?  He didn’t know, he said.  The stairs kept going.  We’ll have to go back and find out some time.  I said, tomorrow.  We’ll go back tomorrow.  My curiosity piqued, I had to find out.  I think you’ll see why. They weren’t just any stairs.  They felt magical.

There was a quality to the air down there that I haven’t felt in a long time.  As I wandered up and down those stairs and sidewalks, I felt like anything could happen, and I felt it in the best way possible.  I was time traveling, using pathways to places that were long forgotten. I was in a movie set with perfect lighting.  I was A Little Princess in a magical garden in India.  But more than anything else, I was hopeful.  And hope makes everything lighter.

P.S. To the Curious Minded: The staircase lead to a series of long-abandoned sidewalks that ended here, at the back-door entrance of neighborhood’s public pool.