Take a deep breath and appreciate your lungs.

It is easy to take autonomic responses for granted until they go offline.

Loosing 70% of my lung function in less than 6 months.

The experience of being unable to catch my breath was scary.

I'd just cultivated a meditation practice where I focused my attention on the breath.

Now my place of refuge was scary.

What arose was to find a replacement, to tune into another function, the beating of my heart.