Event: The Emergence of Time
Date: 0 seconds after the Big Bang

“Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.”
—Ray Cummings

Dear Human,

Time was born in the same breath as space and energy. From the moment the universe began, so too began the ticking of something strange—something that could not be seen, held, or heard, but that would touch everything. Time is the one direction from which you cannot turn away. It is not a thing you travel through, but the very condition that makes travel, change, and memory possible.

Time is not a substance. It is a measurement of change. A record of how things move from what they were to what they are becoming. Without change, there would be no time. And without time, no change could ever unfold.

Time flows only forward. That is its law. It gives rhythm to the cosmos, stitching moments into stories, causes into consequences. Without time, there would be no before or after. No growth. No history. No you.

In the earliest universe, time passed differently—stretched and twisted by energy too dense to imagine. But as the cosmos expanded and cooled, time smoothed. It became what we now know: a steady river, always moving, carrying every particle, every star, every thought forward.

Time makes change possible, but it also makes loss inevitable. It is the keeper of endings. Flowers wilt. Stars burn out. Moments pass. Yet it is this very passing that gives life its urgency, its weight, its beauty. If nothing could change, nothing could ever begin.

Time also gives rise to memory—the gentle echo of what once was. And from memory, comes learning. From learning, purpose. From purpose, progress. And through it all, time humbles. It shows you that everything is temporary, including yourself. That even great things must fall, and even small things can grow.

Yet in its quiet unfolding, time allows you to dream. To imagine what does not yet exist. To strive, to hope, to build futures not yet written. The present is always fleeting, but time offers a horizon beyond it—a space not of being, but of becoming.

You walk one step at a time, and you do not walk alone. Everything that exists shares the journey with you. Time is your silent companion. It does not judge. It does not wait. But it does carry you forward—one breath, one thought, one transformation at a time.

Pathfinder

Time – Wikipedia