Not everyone leaves their hometown. Perhaps such folks find themselves lingering in a place far longer than they ever thought; they had intentions to go abroad for a great adventure at some point, only it never materialized. Not, at least, in the way they had once expected.

Have you ever paused to consider how a place comes to find itself haunted? Haunted in the old-fashioned sense of the word: laden heavily with experience, nostalgia, and memory, rather than the modern fare of ghosts, spirits, and phantoms.

A few months ago, I took up swimming. What began purely as a means of exercise soon blossomed into something of a religious experience—though not in the kooky, New Age-y way, mind you.