A Place in My Life Where I Feel Safe
By Grant Maher


I feel safe walking around in my neighborhood, which centers on the intersection of Los Padres Avenue and El Camino Real in Santa Clara. The surrounding streets are lined with magnificent large trees and orderly front yards, and on the Camino are abundant mixed businesses.
While walking, there is a sense of purpose (exercise) yet the walking itself is effortless. The mind goes quiet; there will be time for business and worry later. For now, there’s just breathing and the rhythm of putting one foot in front of the other, and watching the landscape swim by.
Yesterday on the corner of Los Padres Avenue and El Camino there was a near tragedy; a small lost girl about three years old (daddy went to the store and left her home alone; dumb daddy) stood poised to launch herself into the whizzing traffic of the Camino, frightened and weeping. My girlfriend Aileen and I were driving by and Aileen spotted the lone child with her sharp mother’s eye—and quickly pulled over. I leaped from the vehicle and snatched up the girl. Twenty minutes later the police arrived to pick Sarah or Sahara (we couldn’t dope out which of these names was the correct one) up from my home. The officers found the lost one busy with Play-Doh-- she had crafted a blue crocodile that wasn’t half-bad.
My “safe place” kept its innocence, and for that I was grateful.
“Hey Aileen, what story won’t be in the newspaper tomorrow?” I asked her later.
“I don’t know Grant, what?” she replied.
“”Toddler squished on the El Camino.”” I said.
“You’re just all full of yourself, aren’t you?” observed Aileen.
Yes, I was.