THE PATTERN OF IT ALL

She opened the door, glancing at her watch as she tossed her backpack hastily onto the couch. It was 3:40; she had a little over a half-hour before she had to leave again. Her class had run a little late, and she'd gotten stopped at the light coming out of the parking lot, so she was a bit behind schedule. Factoring in time for changing clothes and finding something to eat, she estimated that she had about 15 minutes of free time.
She supposed 15 minutes was enough. She decided not to worry about the incense or the music, and instead settled herself onto the floor, letting her head rest against the carpet. She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing first, taking deeper and less frequent breaths, until the tension in her chest was gone. She was conscious of her heart rate lowering, feeling the gap between beats slowly beginning to grow.
Her mind was next, bristling with worries about the day. Slowly she cast aside every thought: work, school, homework, family, her boyfriend. She was aware only of the present, that she was lying on the carpet of her one-room efficiency with her eyes closed, between her bed and her desk.
The floor was the first thing to leave, as the carpet became nothing more than a texture on her skin; a sensation behind her. She couldn't see the ceiling, but she felt it slide away from her; felt the walls expand until they were gone completely. Her awareness of her own existence grew to fill the gap, reaching beyond the space in the world where her body lay. Her thoughts spread in every direction, reaching out to lift her away from her physical form.
She flowed over the world, feeling the touch of every mind she passed. She saw old friends, family members long dead, the entirety of humankind. She felt their happiness, their pain, their love. She saw every smiling face, every falling tear, every embrace, all as one. She felt their contact surging back and forth through each other like electricity. The energy of life.
She grew farther, reaching out through time and space, watching creation and witnessing destruction. She stood at the beginning and the end of all existence, as eons of time were made coherent to her. She could see from one side of the universe to the other, looking through everything in between with understanding. She looked out and away from the universe to see what was beyond it, what was on the other side of infinity.
She could look down to where she still lay, could see how close she still was to where she started, and yet how infinitely miniscule she was in the grand scheme. She saw her own birth, then looked ahead to when she would leave, and felt nothing but exhilaration at the feeling of the texture, the pattern of it all. It stretched onward in every direction throughout the universe, through the past and through the future. She let herself take it all in, giving herself a moment to rest and enjoy the sensation.
The journey back was over the moment it started. She opened her eyes in her one-room efficiency, her back resting on the carpet between her bed and her desk. She smiled as she sat up, the understanding of it already beginning to fade as she glanced over at the clock. She had to get ready to go to work. She got up and walked slowly to her closet, content to be in the here and now.