that claws and tears and challenges you to stay

there was a pause as they sat out there in the fading light of the summer evening, talking about nothing, a movie, maybe, or a song, or something, it didn't matter. what did matter was the pause, a short stop where no one said anything and everyone breathed in deep and somehow saw the world at its simplest, its most beautiful. [a] would later reflect on those five seconds and realize that they were five of the only ten seconds in his entire life that he was truly calm and really at peace, both with himself and with the world. the golden sliver of the setting sun across the glittering bay lit the faces of his friends and wiped away all their flaws and their troubles and their pasts and in those five seconds he never loved them more. life became a painting, perfect in its stillness, deeper and sharper than it had ever been before; it was a moment apart from the world.