She concentrated on her breath. With the rythmic insufflation came a vision, startling in it’s clarity. It overcame her, she steeped in it. Immense joy for the time spent with her loved ones, guilt for those she could have loved more. Selfishness and sorrow for wanting more out of this beautiful and precious life, for having wasted so much of it.

Her breathing slowed. When she opened her eyes she saw the thinnest gleaming filament emanating from her chest. She plucked at it, curious. She grabbed on to it and let it pull her, like a child behind a balloon string or a kite, gently moving her along at first. Then she felt as if she was being pulled and pushed in every direction, expanding and inverting, forward and backward. She saw…no, she experienced macrocosm and microcosm, simultaneously. She felt every neutrino of every galaxy pass through her. A funny thought occured to her- was this the morphine?