Stone Witness

Cool stone rested in the palm, smoothed by countless touches—a sheen not crafted, but accumulated across vast stretches of time. Though lacking a clear purpose, faint lines within the rock’s strata revealed echoes of repeated responses to surrounding pressures; each band a record of subtle adjustments. The hand holding it seemed unconcerned with the catastrophic shifts visible in the sediment's layers, as if existence itself arose before any deliberate shaping. A quiet stillness settled over the scene, acknowledging agency not as an imposition, but as interwoven with time’s relentless drift.