I arrived at the beach about 10 in the morning, leapt from my car and ran to the promenade to see if He was wandering among the rock pools. Disappointment set in as my gaze slowed from darting hope, to somber disappointment, He was not there. I sighed and stared out to sea.

It was then an ice-cream appeared in front of me, Mr Whippy dribbling down the fingers that offered it.

"How can you look at such beauty and not be enthralled?"

I span around, almost knocking the cone from the prophets' hands and having to restrain myself from flinging my arms around Him. He returned my smile and said

"So you are in need of air."

We walked along the beach as we ate our ice-creams and I told the prophet all about my near-death experience and how it had made me feel.

"Change and growth take place when a person has risked themself and dares to become involved with experimenting with their own life" He said. "and the universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper."

But what I really wanted to talk to Him about more than anything was the moment of clarity I had experienced. Was that an epiphany? Was it a moment of enlightenment? Was I now finally on the road to understanding? And He replied ...

"Once for each thing. Just once; no more and never again. But to have been. this once, completely, even if only once with the earth, seems beyond undoing."