How Can We Curate Joy Amid Difficult Circumstances?


In the days before April 23, 2023, I knew something was wrong. Spring allergies had hit early, and my breathing was intermittently difficult. Out came the COVID test and albuterol. Since Sunday was my only official day off from my work in school leadership, I confirmed I did not have COVID and set off to walk to an annual wellness screening appointment. Having rescheduled the appointment three times and being six months overdue, I did not want to miss it again. The two albuterol inhalation treatments I had taken had not done much to increase my breathing capacity and had left me shaky. Another puff of albuterol would do me no good. I just had to go slowly.

My slow speed was as fast as my lungs would move me. I was conscious of every inhalation and exhalation and actively employed the forced exhalation technique that I found through online research. Previously tested with some success, I concentrated on moving my diaphragm upwards and the slow, forcible expulsion of dirty air through pursed lips. Asthma is not an issue of not getting enough air in. Instead, it is the inability to get rid of used, carbon-dioxide-filled air so that it sits where you do not want it to, within the cavities of the lungs and the alveoli sacs, inhibiting the clean air’s passage.