Breathing’s always been important for life. 2020 was a year when breathing was suddenly at the center of everything we were consumed with. COVID was strangling people to death, and left many more gasping for air, coughing up blood, or just struggling with this basic function. George Floyd died choking that he couldn’t breathe. The wildfires on the West Coast suffocated my beloved Portland, and shrouded the whole country in smoke.

We rarely acknowledge what a privilege it is just to breathe.