Today, I’m grateful to be given a crown…two of them in fact!  Oh no, not the kind lovingly placed upon my head mind you, but the ones sitting straight inside my mouth. This caps off (HA!) another part of my medical pathway this year and I’m sure my bank account will take quite a while to recover.  There’s a joke in our family about the fact my dental woes occurred shortly after St. M and I married.  Daddy always tells him, “Well, you should’ve checked her teeth first before marrying her, you know!”

Modern dentistry is truly a miracle of science never ceasing to amaze me and I’m certainly grateful for local anesthetic medications used during the process.  While I’m not particularly squeamish because of years of dental issues, doing a two-fer on the same day is a new experience.  Having a dentist who meticulously explains her process is helpful…and so is breathing.  In fact, I consider breathing the root of any problem I might have during a dental procedure.

Consider this:  Inhale. Exhale.  Most of us are grateful to breathe up to 30,000 times a day on our own because our breathing is instinctual.  During a dental procedure, I sometimes have to work for sustained, calm breath since there are multiple instruments, overactive salivary glands, and a deadened tongue going ballistic inside my mouth all at once.  If my nose is stuffy, this experience exacerbates the situation.  I forget to quietly relax into the inhale…exhale with that drill literally buzzing in my head.

Life is like this too.  Some days are gratefully quiet and breathing commences peacefully as expected; other days are a struggle to catch a cleansing breath.  So today, I’m simply grateful for new crowns in my mouth and the breathing used to endure the procedure, a most vital part of my continued existence.

Day #7:  What “vital” things are you grateful for today?

Breathing sustains the body, mind, spirit, and soul.  A strong cleansing breath or two can help us reboot and gratefully sustain anything, including a couple of new crowns. 🙂