Breathing easier

Last week I was diagnosed with "asthma-like symptoms" by my primary care provider. I knew I was already suffering with seasonal allergies because my eyes were itchy and my throat was drippy. But when I asked about tightness in my chest, I was treated to a "spirometry" test to measure how much air I could move. Apparently, I did not do particularly well on this test. I am now enjoying the benefits of an albuterol inhaler and some new allergy meds. It's amazing to me what a difference it makes!

Many years ago, while visiting a friend in Miami Beach, I learned that my eyesight was not as sharp as I thought it was. While we stood on the beach and waited for an airplane banner to pass by,  I was surprised when my friend, Chris, could read the banner long before I could--especially since she wears glasses and I didn't! My reaction was to ask her, "You can read that from here?" Her reply was, "You can't?" I was stunned to realize that I didn't even know what I had been missing.

I remember the day I got my first pair of glasses. As I drove home on a beautiful early spring day, I was amazed to find that I could actually see the details of individual leaves on the trees along the roadside. It was a truly moving experience for which I was, and still am, eternally grateful. I felt I had been given a tremendous gift that allowed me to see all that had been blurry or missing in life. How exciting!

When I realized last week that I really had not been breathing fully for quite some time, I felt a little scared and a bit sad.  While I am well aware that many people suffer far worse breathing ailments than I, it was still very disconcerting to me to think that my lungs were not working as well as they should have been. Given that I grew up in a family where every adult was an unrelenting and unrepentant smoker, it should not be a big surprise that my lungs now might be less than perfectly healthy. But since I've tried to lead a healthy life as an adult I guess that I was (wishfully) thinking that I could avoid all the health problems that plagued my elders. Maybe I will, maybe I won't.

But what I do know is that I am so grateful to be able to breath so much better now! When I took my new medicine then went for my usual four-mile run, I couldn't get over how much improved my breathing was. The next day, when I went to my favorite yoga class, I couldn't believe how much more deeply I could breath. It was just as exciting as that day I got my new glasses. Once again I feel like I got a tremendous gift that allows me to appreciate life even more. How exciting!

Life is a Gift

If the old saying is true that each day is a gift, then why don't we ever get the gift receipt included in case we we want to make an exchange?

Wouldn't we all like to trade one super bad day for at least an average, if not spectacular, day? That would certainly be a nice convenience to have for those days when everything seems bleak, bad and wrong. There could be great comfort in knowing that on one of those days where it feels as though life is too hard we could just hit a reset button.

Which terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day would you choose to exchange? Which day would you switch it to if you could?

Hey Now!

For more than a year I have entertained the idea of writing a blog. Like many others I feel the need to write down my thoughts and ideas. And like so many others, for some unknown reason, I feel the need to share some of these thoughts and ideas. I think it must be a pretty basic human need to communicate and to feel understood. I know they are two of my most important needs.  So I will write. Whether anyone reads what I write is another matter entirely. But I hope that I will enjoy the writing at least half as much as I've always imagined I would.

Many times when I'm chatting with my Hubby in the evening, we will laugh together and I will say to him, "I'm Funny!" Then he'll say, "You should write it down." So maybe now I will. How fun!