QUOTE : The more attention she paid to the sounds around her, the more they exploded into her consciousness. The sway and crackling of Mr. K's branches, the scurry of tiny bugs under the rocks, the sound of the waterfall in the distance—the world felt smaller and bigger, louder and quieter. Impossible to explain, but so alive and present. "Good." Mr. K's brown, bark-like eyes looked straight into her. "Excellent. Do you feel the difference when you open up?" She nodded. "Yes, but I don't know how to describe it." "It's about expansion verses contraction. You, and quite honestly most humans, spend all of your time contracted. Like a roly-poly bug or a snail stuck in its shell, you crawl into yourself and shut yourself off from the world.