“Suddenly some force struck him in the chest and side, making it still harder to breathe, and he fell through the hole and there at the bottom was a light.”
“Why do we breathe air? Because we love air? Because we don’t want to suffocate. Why do we eat? Because we don’t want to starve. How do I know I love her? Because I can sleep after I talk to her.”
“The past rests, breathing faintly in the darkness. It no longer holds me as it used to; now I must reach back to touch it. It is night and I am alone and there is still time, a moment more. I am standing on a long black stage, with a circle of light on me, which is my love for you, enduring.”
“Sutra 1.34: pracchardana-vidhârañâbhyâm vâ prâñasya”
Translation: The mind is also calmed by regulating the breath, particularly attending to the exhalation and the natural stilling of breath that comes from such practice.
“He could still taste her lips from when he’d kissed her in the restroom. He’d never forget it. The sweet sourness of Red Bull, coffee, and the bacteria on her teeth. The humility of it, the realness of a pretty girl with bad breath.”
“It is a brutal arithmetic. But I - I am alive. You are alive. As long as we breathe, we can see and hear. As long as we remember, all those gone before are alive inside us.”
“As she swam, she silently chanted in time with her strokes: ‘I’m so happy, I’m so happy, I’m so happy, breathe, I’m so happy, I’m so happy, I’m so happy, breathe.‘”
“Grandma Poss held her breath - and waited. ‘It’s worked! It’s worked!’ she cried. And she was right. Hush could be seen from head to tail. Grandma Poss hugged Hush, and they both danced ‘Here We Go Round Lamington Plate’ till early in the morning.”
“Poor Thomas was going faster than he had ever gone before. He was out of breath and his wheels hurt him, but he had to go on. ‘I shall never be the same again,’ he thought sadly. ‘My wheels will be quite worn out.’ ”
“A frog! A little, green, tree frog. A beautiful little girragundji. ‘Where did you come from?’ I’m breathing again. I’m gonna live. ‘Where you come from, little fulla?’ Maybe them old people did hear me. Maybe the rain pouring down and the water coming up under our house scared this little one.”
“On reaching a small secret chamber in the left wing, he leaned up against a moonbeam to recover his breath, and began to try and realize his position. Never, in a brilliant and uninterrupted career of three hundred years, had he been so grossly insulted.”
“Sometimes, as she sat knitting, aware that William’s eyes were on her face, she felt her breath tightening in a way that was strange and not unpleasant. Then, just as suddenly, rebellion would rise in her. He was so sure! Without even asking, he was reckoning on her as deliberately as he calculated his growing pile of lumber.”
″‘It’s so quiet,’ thought Tiuri. ‘I’ve never known such quietness in my entire life. All I can hear is our breathing, and maybe, if I listen carefully, the beating of my heart...‘”