It is Only Air

Thirty-five years ago 
at the approximate time of this writing

I was in The Carvery Restaurant, in Regina, 

enjoying steak with Gary, Sharon and Danny.

It was here I had my second to last cigarette.

(My last was in 1986 ~ another story)

For thirty-five years now, 

my lungs have not been clouded by cigarette smoke (except for that one day)

Why did I even want to quit smoking?

Was it fear of cancer ~ heart disease?

Nothing so grand ~

Money ~ too darn much going up in smoke (pardon the pun).

Clear air around myself, my family, my friends for clarity and presence.

Smoke-free clothes, walls and windows for a much brighter world

Clean ashtrays ~ so stinky! (No ashtrays to clean!)

All of those things added up 

becoming more important to me 

than the pleasure from just one cigarette.

It does only take one, you know.

It was not the first time I quit smoking

nor the second

nor even the third.

It was staying stopped that was difficult

in a society where smoking was 
much more of a norm than it is today

With no intent to quit smoking forever 

when I began this little side trip,

and still no intent to quit smoking forever

I will put off having that 'just one more' cigarette for today.....

                         ***

Thirty-five years of no smoking 

has changed the very air that I breathe.

So I have an anniversary today ~

neither momentous nor earth shattering

After all, it is only air.

“All things share the same breath ~ the beast, the tree, the man..

the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.”

~ Chief Seattle