Counting My Remaining Breaths

AINS RECORD INFORMATION

Title: Counting My Remaining Breaths
Category: Short Story
Author: Ening Collection
Publisher: Ening Collection
Language: English
Number of pages: 1
Year published: 2026

DESCRIPTION

A hopeful story about a sick child who stops counting what illness has taken away and begins counting the small moments of love and joy still available to him.

STORY

Twelve-year-old Iman had a lung illness that made breathing difficult. Some days, climbing five steps felt like climbing a mountain.

At the hospital, a machine measured each breath. Iman watched the numbers rise and fall.

“What if I do not have many breaths left?” he asked Nurse Sofia.

She pulled a chair beside him. “None of us knows our exact number,” she replied. “Perhaps we should decide what to place inside the breaths we have.”

Iman did not understand at first.

He began counting everything he could no longer do: football matches missed, school trips cancelled and nights spent away from home. Each number made him feel smaller.

Then a new patient named Ravi arrived. Ravi was seven and frightened of the medical equipment. He cried whenever the mask covered his face.

Iman remembered Nurse Sofia’s words. Using slow breaths, he told Ravi a funny story about a dragon that sneezed bubbles instead of fire. Ravi stopped crying and listened.

The next day, Iman folded paper birds for the children’s ward. He needed many rests, but each completed bird carried a message: You are braver than you feel.

His classmates began sending voice recordings of lessons and jokes. Iman used his energy to reply with encouragement. He discovered that even from a hospital bed, he could help others feel less alone.

When his condition improved, the doctor allowed him to sit in the hospital garden. Iman felt the breeze enter his lungs. He heard birds, smelled wet soil and watched his mother smile.

He did not count the breath.

Instead, he counted one joke shared, twelve paper birds, three new friends, two hugs and a hundred small reasons to be grateful.

Iman still had difficult days. He was not pretending that illness was easy. But he stopped measuring his life only by what he had lost.

Every breath could carry fear, but it could also carry a kind word, a laugh, a prayer or hope.

Iman could not choose the number of his breaths. He could choose the goodness he placed inside them.

SUMMARY

Iman worries about his serious lung illness and counts everything he can no longer do. By comforting other children and appreciating small moments, he learns to fill his life with kindness and gratitude.

MORAL LESSONS

Life is valuable even during difficult times. Helping others can give us courage. We should appreciate small joys without ignoring real sadness or pain.