[Book.]

There comes over me a strange feeling, even through all the shaking, as if a stillness penetrated all movement, all cacophony. For one moment I forget completely where I am, even that I am a body, fragile, on this earth. For several seconds it is as if I have entered a vision, am aware of a sense of infinity, and light, and love in cosmic scales. And I have gone nowhere, but I then perceive myself as if returning to mortality, back to the solidities of our world at large, the world we share. I know not if I have been gone a year or a second. But as I ground, I feel the earthquake dissipate, its energy spending its last fewest ergs, the peace returning beneath me. I am crouched prostrate on the pavement, my hands clasped, where last I was on this planet: praying. The prayer answered.