I can't remember when this was, exactly, but I would put it in my middle school years. (6th-8th grade if you don't know the vernacular) Our family had taken a trip to FL, visiting some of my father's family who were living down there. We rented a condo that was right on the beach, and what I remember most vividly was walking on the beach at night, a large and almost full moon in the sky overhead. The roar of the waves, the cool and salty breeze off the water, and the sight of the moon was powerful, and I would use the word magical as well. I got a first experiential glimpse of time; the wind wand waves would be eternal, the moon above was eternal, and I felt eternal at the moment, even though I knew that the hotels and the other people...even myself...would be gone before the elements would be.

There's a cynical part of me that says that that particular beach is not eternal, may be a parking lot or just swallowed up by a changing waterline. It's still a very positive memory, though; one I turn to on occasion to help cheer me up. Just a small snippet of a lifetime, but a good and strong one nonetheless.