It seems we had very similar chain of thoughts upon reading the options for this weeks topic. Yes, there are times borne out of, (as you say) "painful reality" that we do not visit often. Sometimes they pop up in a daydream out of nowhere and transport us back and it could almost feel like it happened to someone else.
Over the last 20 years or so, since I begun to get older, lose people who were important to me and my daughters grew into adults, I learned that yes, opening doors can be cathartic, but I highly recommend only opening one at a time, I learned that one from bad experience lol.
So many of the kind of light-hearted memories you mentioned, seemingly insignificant are actually the most important moments of our past:
I remember holding her hand and walking to the zoo.
Priceless!
Oh and yes by the way... Just children and dogs! 😏
... and sometimes me!
!PIZZA