The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls

I thought that this poem had a really great meaning behind something so obvious in nature that I think we all take for granted more often than not. I love how the author uses the waves to describe our lives. We often think that we are very great people and are very important, but in the end our impact, if we had any is eventually washed away. Time will keep on going no matter what. The waves will keep rolling in regardless of what happens and I think we all need to take that into account. If we knew the waves would wash away our mark, would we all try a little bit harder to make our impact deeper, to last longer? Would we acknowledge the footprints before the're washed away?