The wind gushes
The gull screams
The waves lap on the pebble beach
The atmosphere hushes
The sun gleams
There is no need for speech

I am the only human for several miles in any direction
The sound of a car on the coast road like a scar on the face of nature
Two-hundred million years lead to this moment
I pick up a rock, a rock that used to live.
When this animal was alive, there was no cruelty, no malice, no spitefulness
These are traits unique to man

Here on this beach the immensity of time stretches backward
I am an insignificant dot on the geological scale
But to those whose lives I touch, I am more important than every being that has ever lived
So here we are
We can only go forward
We can see the past but the future is cloudy, mildly lit by the present.
The present defines the future, it is that I can affect.

I close my eyes and feel the sea air
Clutching history in the palm of my hand
I have control, it is my choice
To go forward.