footsteps in the sand...

Birth and Death...who hasn't been mystified by these two inevitable elements...when the beginning and the end are so overpowering, how can we expect ourselves to understand the intricacies of life,the enigmatic journey we begin to invariably reach the end...?
We spend a lot of time contemplating the past, and planning the future...but when was the last time we took a break to take a look at what we are doing in the present? Have we ever tried to understand the implications of our actions? Am i talking about karma? No, i am talking about how our existence alters another,how a seemingly unimportant act of ours might alter the life of another.
Look at Mitch Albom's take on heaven in the five people you meet in heaven. He recounts the story of Eddie,who meets five people in heaven. These five people are those whose lives Eddie has altered in someway. Eddie doesn't even know the first man he meets. But as a kid, Eddie once ran into the street to retrieve his ball.This man swerves his car to avoid Eddie. He prevents this accident, but still reeling in shock from having almost hit Eddie, he meets with another,culminating in his death.
Makes you ponder about how many lives you have altered unknowingly, doesn't it?
These are incidents that most probably will never be brought to your notice, unless heaven really is a chance given by god to understand your life, as Albom puts it. But what about those that you are aware of?
When we hurt someone with our actions, we repent. If we can, we try to change our ways so that we don't hurt them further. But the damage has been done. Can we erase this damage? Or are our actions written indelibly into the cosmic sea, from which there can be no point of return? Is every action of ours making not just our life,but so many others, a deeper mess? Is there any true way of forgiving and forgetting?
As we run this journey, we invariably leave our footsteps in the sand...in a place already filled with many, we add our own,mis-shaping those we stamp on, cracking those nearby...the question is,will the sea ever advance enough to wash over them...?