Everyone I know breathes, including me. I do not know when or how I learned to breathe but it must have been when I was very young or else I would have remembered. I have truly enjoyed breathing. It can be lots of fun and is enjoyed throughout one’s entire life. Everybody does it, I think, although I don’t happen to know everybody but I’m sure they do. I have been breathing for a great number of years and have grown neither tired nor bored with it. I feel sorry for people who don’t or can’t breathe but I feel that if they have been suffering that condition for very long they are not really missing it by now.

I don’t know what life would be like without breathing for an extended period of time but I suppose that it would be very uncomfortable. I tried it once for about half a minute and didn’t like it. I take a breath, in and out, about every eight and a half seconds. That is between seven and eight breaths every minute. I don’t think I have ever missed a minute although I may have when I was asleep. I like breathing because it helps me feel healthy and refreshed. I intend to keep it up for the remainder of my life and hope that I don’t forget during that time.

In the unlikely event that you do not know why breathing is important, I will take a measure of delight in telling you. The air that comes into your lungs is soaked up by the blood and carried throughout the rest of your body. The rest of your body welcomes this incoming fluid with warm embrace because without the blood the rest of the body would die and take the blood with it. It’s a jungle in there. Once the oxygen has been used by your body, your lungs are loaded with carbon dioxide, a gaseous chemical that, if allowed to accumulate, would have a deadening, fatal, effect on your body. But, don’t worry, just in the nick of time, your lungs step in to the rescue. They exhale and push the exhausted breath out into the rest of the world where it will be refreshed and can be used by another pair of lungs. Isn’t nature wonderful?

Most of us breathe without thinking about it. While this technique works just as well as breathing while thinking about it, its practice denies us some worthwhile enjoyment. The act of filling one’s lungs with an abundance of air can only be topped by exhaling that same air after it has been spent and its life-giving virtues have been enjoyed by the inhaling body. Together, the two events make for a highly satisfying occasion. This sequence should be enjoyed frequently by its enjoyer.

The human body allows us to breathe not only through our nostrils but also through our mouths. If either of these two objects is blocked we can still survive by taking breaths through the other. If both of these are blocked for an extended period of time, we are in deep trouble and in danger of reaching our untimely demise. It is recommended by this author and others that you try to avoid this circumstance. Breathing though the mouth in a loud and patterned manner that accents the exhale is called panting and is an excellent method of annoying your immediate company. A more civilized use of panting is after an exhausting activity when one is desperately out of breath; panting helps restore one’s breath to its more routine pattern. It is incumbent upon the panter, in this case, to resume normal breathing when he or she experiences relief.

It turns out that breathing is not always effortless and automatic. There are hazards, pitfalls and inconveniences that occur naturally and can cause discomfort to the breather. A stuffed nose occurs when the sinuses become clogged with substances that I am loathe to mention here. But take my word for it, they are embedded by nature in the very depths of the nasal passages and not very willing to yield to hastily applied medications that promise instant or long-term relief. I have a set of personal philters, potions and fluid contrivances that I depend upon to take care of my ills but, unfortunately, none of them works. In spite of this fact, I continue to use them in the hopes that this time maybe they will work.

Usually, like so many other people that I know, and probably many people that I don’t, I take my breathing for granted. I expect it to behave properly every time without my personal intervention or concern. Of course, this is a mistake. Your breathing mechanism and working innards do not like to be taken for granted any more than your other life-sustaining internal systems.

I have known many people who breathe. I have never known anybody who was not breathing at the time I knew him. I think that this tells us something about breathing. We should do our best to keep up the process as long as we can without interruption. It would seem a bad idea to stop breathing even for a short time. Keep this thought in mind. You will thank me for it someday