It is easy to linger on the forces of destruction, yet hard to ignore the return of life to this region. As I near the base of the Mountain, as I am swept into its broken shadow by the falling sun, I am filled with the sense of timelessness. What has happened here and the processes that followed, the reshaping by wind and water, the carpeting with new life, these are constants that cannot be measured in the space of a human life span. We may catch glimmers and take snapshots, but purpose is beyond our understanding. We are forced to accept, and like the grass, the flowers, and the rodents, to build anew, adapt, or perish. There are no other choices.