Institutions.
My life has touched on every single one of them, in some way and with regularity. Hospitals, shelters, centres (always ?centres? because more descriptive terms may make it easier for others to know what you are really hiding) funeral homes, anywhere where people take over your life and run it for you for a little while until you can take over again.
Institutions and caretakers.
People we have very short intense relationships with, people who take responsibility for your body and your mind for a while, then fade quickly out of your life again; you don?t even always remember their names. You don?t need to. They don?t remember you either. It?s fine.
Rest stations, coffee breaks, nap time.
Anticipating these pauses is futile and irresponsible. They remind us not that we are alive, but why we are alive.
Everything else is memory.