I stumbled upon this quote today in a book I'm reading for my essay.

Places are fragmentary and inward-turning histories, pasts that others are not allowed to read, accumulated times that can be unfolded but like stories held in reserve, remaining in an enigmatic state, symbolizations encysted in the pain or pleasure of the body.

- from Michel de Certeau's The Practice of Everyday Life    

Resonance! Just in the morning on my trip to the library, I spotted this cute little ensemble of windows and barren bush. I stopped and took the time to chuckle at its resemblance of a dazzled and dopey smile. And just like that, this arbitrary place on the street became a fragment of my 'accumulated time,' a space that I now will always find endearing and personal.