the ebb and flow

here’s a quick one.

picture the evolution of the human species as the ebb and flow of ocean water.

for us, it’s hard to picture individual water molecules sliding, bouncing, sinking, rising over one another, pushed up and sloshed around by masses far greater than any square mile of water.

wind, plate tectonics, and underwater topographies all contribute to create these waves that push the water onto the shore. with a great roar, the water crashes into the sand and rocks of beaches and cliffs, and slide back down into the indivisible ocean.

from a bird’s perspective, this is all the ocean. but to each particular molecule, their rise and fall is the millions and billions and trillions of small efforts creating a force so large for itself that it seems to shake the earth.

we arise from this mass of human spirit, driven by forces far beyond our collective recognition; some rise high in the waves, others carry the wave from the ocean floor.

another crash, and we are shuffled back into the ocean, some pushed up, some sucked down, all to fulfill this cyclical process of rise and fall, rise and fall, rise and fall.

but it’s never the same rise, never the same fall. the waves are constant, but never repeating itself. and at times, these greater forces make for world-changing effects on the ocean, where the water is carried into the clouds, or push over beaches and cliffs as the ocean waters rise, and we are dispersed into the world. some reach the highest peaks, others enter the deepest caves.

but one moment or another, each water molecule that has been sent into deserts and mountains will return back to its totality, the ocean.

maybe the trajectory of our evolution is not to leave this earth, but to find new and more beautiful ways to return home.