Treasure Every Breath You Take

Why should you treasure every breath you take?

When my mother gave birth to me, I was healthy.  I loved school and never missed a single day.  I had no allergies or any other health problems until I reached the 5th grade.

So what happened in the fifth grade?

After my Mother and her first husband parted company, my home consisted of my Mother, herself, and my siblings.  But, when I was in the fifth grade, my Mother remarried a man who seemed to be unable to remember that every breath he took as well as every breath everyone else took was precious.  He was a kind man with a loving heart but he constantly needed cigarettes.

From the time he woke up in the morning to the time he went to bed, my stepfather had a cigarette in his hand.  When he was eating his dinner, someone had to cut his food for him because he always had a cigarette in one hand.

A few months after he moved into our home, I began to develop allergies and migraine headaches, I also struggled to breathe.  Doctors eventually diagnosed my stepfather with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (CPOD). For the last 15 years of his life, his lung condition required him to sue an oxygen tank and still smoking. Unfortunatelty, his COPD caused him a great deal of pain.

Then many years later…

About twenty years ago, my stepfather died from COPD in a hospital.  No longer allowed to smoke and knowing he would die soon, he asked the staff to give him drugs that would allow him to sleep.  The day before he went to sleep, he called family members to say his goodbyes.  When he called me, he said, “Daughter, every breath you take is precious and I am sorry that my smoking has caused you to struggle to breathe. My smoking has caused both of us pain and I wish that I had quit many years ago.”

I choked back my tears and replied that I loved him anyway and that I was sending him a big hug through the phone.

But I have continued to suffer from these conditions although I am now beyond the midpoint of my life.  In fact, yesterday morning I woke up struggling to breathe and my husband immediately took me to urgent medical care. The doctor found that the only cause for the severity of my asthma is my allergies. Now I must take steroids to be able to breathe until the weather allows us to return to the clean mountain air of our home where my allergies do not bother me.

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Today I am encouraging you to treasure every breath you take and every breath your loved ones take. Please do not ever do anything to cause yourself or someone else to struggle to breathe, because most lung diseases are incurable.

If you struggle with an addiction, remember there is no shame in getting help to resolve it!

Breathe clean air every breath you take.

Let the encouraging words in these near a river posts help you

soar like an eagle above life’s storms.

Do you take things for granted?

Please celebrate your life every day you wake up.

Did you know that addiction is sometimes related to depression?

The most powerful forces in the universe are love and positive thinking!

If you enjoyed this post, remember that BJ writes children’s books.

Her encouraging children’s eagle

near a river common core reading book

is available on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.

Buy BJ’s near a river encouraging eagle reading book

for a child you care about today!