Just Looking

The Prompt

Write a story that ends in a desert setting with this last sentence:

Engulfed in the desert's parched silence, I was nothing but another grain of sand in the wind.

The music is "Infinity" by Guru Josh.

This is not so much a story as my thoughts on our place in the universe which almost becomes a poem.

Just Looking

It's past midnight.

I'm sitting on the top of this dune.

I see the sand drifting off forever in every direction.

I am alone, I can see no one and no one knows that I am here.

I brought nothing with me, just the clothes I am wearing and a bottle of water, I don't want to die of thirst. Sometimes I hear people complain about getting older, I am fine with getting older, possibly because I don't like the alternative.

In this desert, there is no light pollution so I can see the moon and the stars clearly.

Above me, there is an infinity of stars and I sit amid an infinity of sand grains. Well, I know there is not an infinity of sand grains because they could be counted, in theory, but that could never happen in reality, so maybe that infinity is effectively real.

We can't count the stars.

We can count the ones that we see, and we can estimate the ones we can't see, but that is not a final figure, and we would probably get it wrong.

These are thoughts that come to me sitting here.

I am probably the most important and significant thing in this area but am I any more significant than every grain of sand here in the greater scheme of things?

Sitting here, not moving, allows me to contemplate peacefully and allow my mind to appreciate the wonder of all that I can see and be aware of.

If there is anyone in space or on any of the sparkling stars that I can see, I know that they will not be able to see me, and to them, I will be as the grains of sand that I sit among as I sit in this state of wonder.

I see the wind blowing the ripples on the dunes of sand, almost like waves on the ocean with a little more permanence, and still, the dunes are molded by each breath of wind.

I am calmed by there being no sound, but the sound of the wind. I could speak, or sing, and add to the ambiance of the atmosphere, but I would be the only one to hear those sounds.

The only colors I see are the color of the sand and the sparkles within it, that black darkness of space, the grey-white of the moon, and the diamond glitters of the stars.

How long have I been here?

I don't know

How long will I be here?

That is something else that I do not know. Also, I don't think that it really matters.

I am taking so much from this situation.

It feeds my soul and makes me feel fulfilled.

Because I am like this I can be there for friends and family who need me.

I will return to civilization at some point but currently, I am drinking in the calm and watching the stars like a child.

I see that I am important to those I matter to, while realizing I am as small as any grain of sand that I pick up and let flow through my fingers back to the desert floor where it came from.

It is night.

It is silent.

The wind has dropped.

This is me.

Sitting on top of a sand dune in a desert.

Engulfed in the desert's parched silence, I was nothing but another grain of sand in the wind.