Life, one breath away, one breath a time

I’ve been pretty sick in the last two weeks. After 3.5 years and 4 vaccines, I got Covid.

I don’t get sick normally - I run, I swim, I dive and I ski. I take cold water shower every morning, then I do 100 pushups. I had relatively good health so I have been taking good health for granted.

The Covid hit me hard this time.

In my most painful moment of the Covid sickness, even a sightly deeper breath made my throat hurt. The pain seemed to ripple from my throat all the way into my brain. I started to wonder: “If I have to live like this for the rest of my life, is that life worth living?” Luckily that pain only lasted for a few days.

Now looking back that was a quite pathetic thought, but at the moment it was feeling unbearable.

Nietzsche once said “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” Now I have mostly recovered and just completed my first 5 miles run, let me reflect what I have learned from the sickness.

“The breath we take, at this moment, is a bless. It is not guaranteed we will have a breath like this the next moment.”

I will try to remind myself the preciousness of each breath, pay attention to that breath, make it count, make it worth it.

I hope you do too.