This is the story of a seagull, sitting by the sea, gazing at its glory, lost in thoughts of its eternity. She’s found solace in a picturesque Portuguese town, where each little home is nestled perfectly beside the next. The village is quaint, still, on a muggy day. A constant murmur of crashing waves echoes through the town. This particular seagull is quieter than the rest—her calls are not as loud, her mind buried deep in thoughts of the past, present, and future.
She begins with the past. It’s a blur of spontaneity and motion, never a moment to pause, to think about the next step. It just was, after a while, after the constant hustle. She lived a busy life, no space between one breath and the next. Now, in this moment, everything is different. Her present is stillness, a contrast to the relentless pace of the past. The absence of crusade, of movement, brings her a quiet kind of peace, like the gentle warmth of the sun as it bathes her in its rays. She feels golden.
As she shifts, slowly parting her eyelids, she gazes toward the now-glittering water. What is the present, she wonders? It’s this: her two feet perched on the cliff’s edge, the beach below, her feathers warming in the sun’s embrace. It’s that brief moment between breaths, where she makes the choice to take flight. One wing lifts, and both feet hop off the ledge, her body skipping momentarily through the air. Five seconds pass, and her chest meets the wind as she spirals just above the rooftops, the village spread out below her, a picture framed by blotchy clouds in the sky. She exhales, her eyes closing briefly as she floats into the vastness.
And then, a thought: What about tomorrow?
Abruptly, her wing loses its alignment, misadjusted in the wind, and for a moment, she falters, plummeting into a panicked freefall.
Instinctively, she focuses, regains her balance, and steadies herself for a safe landing on the pebbled streets below. She hobbles back toward the sea, finding a quiet spot where she can rest in solitude. Slowly, she drifts back into her thoughts, sinking into a tranquil moment, lost once again in the quiet contemplation of tomorrow.
