A place can become memorable because nothing happened there when you badly needed nothing to happen.

Some places matter because they gave you nothing. No event, no demand, no news, at a time when an absence of events was exactly what you could survive, and the memory attaches to the quiet rather than to anything that occurred. Refuge is a real function of a place.

It is worth knowing where yours are, because you may need one again. A bench, a route, a room, a cafe where nobody asks anything. Keep them in mind, and when someone you care about is in a hard stretch, remember that offering an uneventful few hours can be more useful than offering advice.