RESPIRE

Respire. I actually like the word breathe better. I love the breath. I did my first aid courses back in the day when you had to do mouth-to-mouth. And I prayed that I would never have to do it for real. The practice dummy was bad enough. Then, this guy in front of us at Coventry Cathedral keeled over and I started to step up. Fortunately, a woman next to him gave him the old mouth-to-mouth until an ambulance came. Whew!

My next close call came when I was with my young kids at a swimming pool in Concord, New Hampshire, USA and the life guard went over backward crashing her head on the cement. The pool was full of kids. I yelled at everyone to get out of the pool. For some reason they did. I rushed to the life guard while yelling at one of the older kids to go home and call 911. Before cell phones it was.

Once again I was saved from performing CPR because she was having a seizure and  bleeding badly from where she cracked her head on the cement. The rescue people arrived quickly. I have never seen so many kids obey so well and so fast.

Then I ran into my moral quandary with the arrival of AIDS. Would I, could I, give mouth-to-mouth in the event that I could catch the AIDS virus? This thought must have come to a lot of people because soon medical workers got given those rubber dams that would protect us from blood and mucus. Really? But I carried those things around with me for years, having mild nightmares about my ability to help if there was vomit involved. I can't do vomit. I once threw up in a supermarket when I chanced upon a broken bottle of gifilta fish. (Bad visual)

Then miracle of miracle we find out that the mouth-to-mouth is no longer necessary, may never have been necessary. And I never had to use it! Thank God. But then it is still amazing to think that one possibly could breath life back into another person. I think we do this spiritually and psychologically and don't give ourselves enough credit. My friend Jane just did this for me this afternoon. Now I can breathe again.

(How the hell do you spell gifilta fish?)

We all have breathed courage into ourselves and others. We have breathed enthousiasm, given heart to those loosing hear