Why is the capacity vital?

The blank space on the screen just invited me to come play. I just signed up for an online writing class -6 weeks, 6 essays, taught by Jennifer Mattson (www.jennifermatson.com).  The instructor asked us for twitter/facebook handles and website/blog information. It took me a second to realize I had a blog.  I revisited "The Vital Capacity" after many years.  It was like seeing an old friend, my former self.  My self who had bursts of creativity, saw irony and parallels in unusual sights and shared them with the nebulous "reader."  I read things I wrote that made me smile, like my last blog post.  Then my eyes gazed on the title, The Vital Capacity.

The vital capacity, in my profession, quite simply put, is the maximum amount of air that you can breathe in and out at any given time.  It the measurement of air, in liters.  I see patients who have trouble breathing the vital capacity out, and I see patients who have a limited amount of vital capacity due to perhaps muscle weakness or chest deformities.  It's what defines my livelihood, and in one sense, motivates me to come to work every day.  It's also what creates guilt - I'm a full time working mother.  As I walk the halls of my clinic and the hospital, I picture my lips touching my toddler's son soft bulging cheeks, and I picture myself digging my nose into his pudgy belly, hearing his soft, giggle.  These daily reminders and meditations of my son are vital to my day, and keep me breathing a bit more easily.  And I also dream of what my life could be - a perfect balance of keeping my patients healthy, teaching new things to my son, and... writing!

You can't be a practicing physician without seeing patients.  You can't be a mother without a child (whether he or she is yours or not, I should add!).  And you can't be a writer without writing.  I'm working on all three.