Breathing Lessons
Breathing Lessons is a 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by American author Anne Tyler. It is her eleventh novel.
Plot
The story describes the joys and pains of the ordinary marriage of Ira and Maggie Moran as they travel from Baltimore to attend a funeral and back home again in one day. It also examines Maggie's attempts to reconcile her son and daughter-in-law. During the journey to the funeral, we learn how both Ira and Maggie have forgone their youthful dreams and feel they have settled for an "ordinary life." We experience how they exasperate each other--Maggie too talkative, too meddling; Ira too logical, uncommunicative, and too judgmental. A few detours during their 90-mile drive reveal Ira and Maggie's "incompatibilities, disappointments, unmet expectations—and lasting love".
Breathing lessons
If there was a time and a place to let go of this heart, it's right now it's always
It's not fair, it still hurts
I pretend that she asks, "Do you know why stars shine" but I can't tell her why
So put your head between your knees
It's not fair, it's not fair
I'm trying not to breathe
It's all wrong, it still hurts
I'm still looking for the words
It's not fair, it's not fair
I'm still waiting for my turn
And I know that these words are the hardest words to hear