I sat on the beach, sand sifting through my hands. I watched as each golden grain slipped through my fingers, tumbling down to land with its predecessors and disappear into anonymity on the wide beach. Wind carried my hair from my shoulders, spreading it out on the pale morning sky. It whipped in the breezes, struggling to break free from me but always held back by the roots and bone and skin.

I swept my gaze across the calm beach, with not a soul to revel in it but me. The lonely waves lulled on the shore, its everlasting echo my only companion. Salt breeze whirled around me and a lone gull cried above. I tilted my head back, clear blue eyes following the sweeping arcs of the bird until it disappeared from view. Looking out across the waves I saw the golden sun, half emerged from her slumber reaching over the sky. Her yellow tendrils curled through the pale blue, igniting the bottoms of the clouds in orange and pink flame.

I held my breath, and watched her eek over the horizon.

The sun continued her steady climb, driving the darkness of night before her and brining with her golden light that spilled across the sand and lit the sea, each wave cresting with a white sparkle. The joyous songbirds heralded the rising of the sun and the beginning of another day on Earth, while the squirrels chattered gleefully in the trees.

The lonely waves persisted, keeping me company. I sat there, in the midst of it all, watching the waking of the world. I watched the sun climb over the horizon and rise in all her glory. I watched the moon fade steadily, relinquishing the rule of the sky for twelve hours before the sun would begin to wane and her time would come again. I watched the birds awaken and the world come alive.

I was a grain of sand, anonymous and insignificant in the whole of the world yet I was there to witness one of the more breathtaking moments in life. And here, in the cradle of nature, on a quiet beach, witnessing a quiet dawn I felt swelled with the beauty of it.