Fulfillment Is Impermanent (and That’s Totally Fine)

You can still enjoy your day at the beach.

Photo by Dallas Reedy on Unsplash

The sand is warm on your feet as you doddle, unsteadily, to the water. You have your favorite red pail and yellow shovel in hand. Your belly is full from the PB&J you ate on the ride over. Mom is sitting nearby, relaxed but alert, calm but watching.

This is a good spot, you think to yourself as you plop down. Ah yes, this will do just fine.

You’re going to make a sandcastle.

You and the Sea

The sun makes its way across the sky, yet you are oblivious to this fact. You’re doing something you love. Time has no meaning. In fact, you’d spend all day being there so long as Mom is fine with it (which she is). And so there you remain.

You have a tunnel that connects one side to the other, a tower almost as big as you, and a moat to keep out intruders (like your brother). A better castle? Impossible. This is a work of engineering genius.

… and then the tide comes in.

Woah, woah, woah! The ocean inches closer and closer to your kingdom by the second.

But you’re not going down without a fight! You deepen the moat, add an irrigation canal to divert the flood, you even reinforce the…