I look down at the sand and find that my footprints have faded. Gone, too, are my son’s trail and a cluster of little castles. It is as though everything I have just written here had never happened. All things have been erased without a trace. A new sea has consumed what we created in the shadow of the old. An hour of life has vanished with a single wave. […] Somewhere in those great waters drift our troubles and cares, taken away by tides into which we shall thankfully never wade a second time.

I look down at the sand and find that my footprints have faded. Gone, too, are my son’s trail and a cluster of little castles. It is as though everything I have just written here had never happened. All things have been erased without a trace. A new sea has consumed what we created in the shadow of the old. An hour of life has vanished with a single wave. […] Somewhere in those great waters drift our troubles and cares, taken away by tides into which we shall thankfully never wade a second time.