h O p E

You don't realize how much your heart is attached to a place until you are forced to leave it.

Spending one entire week in your version of paradise, separating from it feels like nothing will ever be the same again. There are major differences between waking up only to go swimming in the backyard for hours, and being smashed up against the 15 person Australian tour group on the subway. They crammed onto the train, piercing the quiet, stale air of our particular car with their pronunciation of how disgustingly hot it was outside. We are, after all, not only on a heat advisory, but a BREATHING advisory. Don't breathe in the City - the pollution will clog your lungs and the heat is thick enough to stop your heart, if even for a few moments.

The air is hot, the atmosphere is sticky, and people are everywhere. You are, inevitably drawn into every person's conversation around you, not because they are particularly interesting, but because you left your iPod at home and they are too close for you not to a rude eavesdropper.

It is not a good morning. Heart aching, body sweaty, mind tired, are ears attune to the Aussie girl go on and on about all the tourists traps she has laid eyes on throughout the last week in the great big city of New York. Suddenly the elderly gentleman next to me pipes up, feeling the need to join the conversation hovering above him..."You know,” he says out of no where, “I met my wife of 30 years on the subway. I just happened to make it on the train that day - jumped on there and there she was...You know, you never know when things are going to happen and change your life." Suddenly, our entire section of the subway was smiling. At his sweetness, at his excitement, at the sense of hope he instilled in each one of us by relating his simple story.

Walking away, things don't feel half as bad anymore. In fact, it even feels cooler outside...