coma camille A borrowed true story: My friend had been in a coma for seven years. I went to sit with her at the hospital. She was sitting upright in bed as she had for all these years, her eyes open, pupils dilated. Thinking of what I had learned about yogic breathing exercises, I slowed my breathing until it matched hers. For about an hour I quietly breathed in synchrony with her, until when I gently modified my breathing, she in her coma would breathe more quickly or slowly to match mine. Finally I yelled, "Hey! Do you have a cigarette?" Jumping up in bed, her eyes wide open, she said, "Don't ever scare me like that again!" 000321 ... marjorie there was one stop. a total stop. in its entirety, it lasted only a few minutes. but it was longer than that. i felt every year of those minutes. and everything was moving out of joint and out of time and out of any rhythm or rhyme. we're giving up the end in exchange for the beginning but we're giving up the beginning in exchange for one more minute to say goodbye to the end. 000520 what's it to you? who go blather from